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Hakuba was impressed despite himself as he watched KID’s doves fly around the room in eerily perfect formations, as though they were all connected through some kind of hive mind, with KID as the demented queen. Said thief was currently conducting for his doves as they flew around dropping glitter-glue bombs on unfortunate officers. Every single explosion of color synced precisely to the music KID had somehow triggered to begin playing as he appeared. Mentally resigning himself to finding green glitter everywhere for the foreseeable future, Hakuba wryly thought that ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ was appropriate music for a KID heist.

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Kudo Shinichi sighed in resignation when a body crashed on the table between him and Heiji. As Heiji attempted to reassure Kazuha and Ran, Shinichi began analyzing the corpse, grimacing at its state. He understood why the girls were upset, when he and Heiji ran across cases they were usually recent occurrences, and this one—was obviously not. Hearing Kazuha yelling (Don’t tell me it’s nothing, Heiji, I’ll never be able to eat ravioli again!) Shinichi bit back another sigh and pulled out his phone to report the case. Hopefully the Osaka police would be able to identify the victim.

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“Leaving already?”

Shinichi turned to see Haibara raising her eyebrows at him, “I need to see Ran.”

“You’ve been gone for years, Kudo,” Haibara said flatly, “Do you really think she’s magnanimous enough to take you back just like that?”

“I’m not expecting her to, Haibara. But with the Organization gone I can finally tell her why I disappeared.”

“And Conan?”

“She’ll hate me for it for a while, but yes, she deserves to know.”

“Good luck, Kudo-kun.”

With a final nod to Haibara, Shinichi stepped out the door as himself for the first time in what felt like forever.

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"Hakuba! You can't believe that note is real." Nakamori growled at the detective.

"It's in his announcement style, and the chirography matches previous notices."

"You're telling me that damn thief is planning to skulk around police headquarters to crash a party!?" Nakamori yelled.

Hakuba grimaced, "The riddle indicates his target belongs to an invited guest, but without more information I couldn't say what."

Nakamori immediately started barking orders and cursing KID as he stormed into his office. Hakuba heard him shout, "as if we'd let KID get away with stealing from our own headquarters!" before the door muffled Nakamori's voice.

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“Ladies and Gentlemen!”

“GET HIM!!”

It had taken less than three seconds after KID’s appearance for the rarefied atmosphere of the Suzuki’s charity ball to descend into chaos. The Task Force had lunged for KID almost instantly, however their plan was mostly foiled by the large number of guests. Those guests were now divided between shouting in anger (those who had been between KID and the Task Force) and cheering with excitement (those who had come with hopes of seeing KID).

KID grinned widely, Such a wonderful start for the night, he thought as he set off his first trick.

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In bas-relief a tale is told

Embosomed deep with sacred tales

With brightest moon, on night most cold

A wizard claims the judge’s scales

Conan glared at KID’s most recent notice. He had a good idea what the thief was after this time, though how he planned to take that specific jewel out of the mural without irreparably damaging it he wasn’t sure. The problem (for Conan, that is) was that the building in question was too far from Tokyo. Ran was unlikely to let him miss a day of school just so that he could attend a KID heist.

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“Bakaito! You promised to spend the day with me! If you back out on me, again…” Aoko trailed off threateningly, and Kaito made a face at her.

“But, Aoko,” he whined, “Why do I have to go to a stupid flower class? Can’t we do something else?”

“It’s just ikebana, Kaito, it won't kill you.”

“It might! I’ll be bored to death!” Kaito flailed dramatically.

Aoko looked unimpressed. “Fine, don’t come, I’ll just tell Chikage-san you’re a horrible person.”

“What!? Aoko! That’s cheating!” Kaito chased after his friend as she walked away, pouting theatrically when he saw her smug expression.

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Heiji cast an experienced eye over the crime scene that had chosen to drop itself on him and Conan. The not-elementary-schooler was busy complaining that he couldn’t even have a day off from cases, but Heiji could see Conan’s sharp eyes furtively analyzing the scene looking for clues. Heiji wondered who Conan thought he was fooling.

“Ya might get tha day off after all, Conan, it looks like this criminal slubbered his plannin’.” Ignoring his fellow detective’s odd expression, Heiji made his way over to detective Takagi to point out several pieces of evidence the killer had carelessly left behind.

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“You’ve been cornered, KID.”

The white-clad thief merely smirked at him. “And yet the only thing standing between the door and myself is you, Tantei-kun.”

Conan promptly flipped open his watch face and aimed, “You don’t have any tricks that will let you get around me.”

KID made a tsk sound, “Such assumptions Tantei-kun. I assure you you’ve yet to see even a fraction of my repertoire.” His smirk widened as he saw Conan’s increase in wariness. KID shot forward, dodging the dart from Conan’s watch in a blur of movement and spraying sleeping gas directly into the child’s face.

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Shinichi was tired. Not physically, but mentally drained. Another case had just been closed, and the killer’s motive was frankly petty. Murder should not be anyone’s reaction to having their love confession rejected. He really wished people would realize how deleterious murders were, to everyone involved and not just the victim and killer. A woman had killed someone because he’d turned down her best friend, and now everyone who knew either of them was struggling to cope with what had happened. Shinichi thought the fact that cases like this weren’t even unusual only made it worse. He needed a vacation.

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Hakuba watched the Taskforce hurry around making last minute pre-heist preparations. Honestly, he didn’t believe Nakamori’s plan would be able to hinder the thief, much less prevent him from absconding with the jewel. To be fair, it probably could have worked—against anyone except KID. Hakuba could see at least three ways for KID to turn this against the officers; not that they'd listen to him. He was still too new to be seen as more than an annoying teenager. Once he could work with the Taskforce rather than around them, Hakuba felt KID would find heists much more difficult.

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“Ne, Hakuba-san,” Conan interrupted, “isn’t that meaning wrong? It should be ‘to split’ right?”
Hakuba frowned at the heist notice. “Which word do you mean, Edogawa-kun?”
“Here, look, cleave means ‘to split or sever’, right?”
The older detective pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re not wrong, Edogawa-kun, but that word is a contranym. It has two definitions...” Hakuba trailed off, scanning the notice again slowly, “And KID is using both. For all of these. Wonderful.”
Conan blinked, “All of them?”
Hakuba grimaced, “There is a contranym in each line of the notice, which means we need to start over.”

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Kaito was annoyed (and more than a bit alarmed, not that he'd ever admit it). He’d been coerced into hanging out with Aoko and Hakuba, as well as Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran. It would have been fine if Hakuba wasn’t making continual implications that Kaito was KID. At the moment, the only thing keeping Kaito from breaking down and pranking the Brit horribly (and risking Aoko's likely retribution) was Kudo’s blatant ignorance of the hints. Kaito prided himself on reading people, and even he couldn’t tell if Kudo was doing it deliberately or if Kudo was really just oblivious.

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It wasn’t often that Shinichi was actively called in to help solve a case. He came across enough incidental murder cases that Megure-keibu only called him specifically for clamant cases. When Megure-keibu called Shinichi in, it was either for a serial killer or a child kidnapping, when Shinichi’s ability to quickly solve a case and identify the culprit could mean the difference between life and death. Thus seeing Megure-keibu's name on his phone was enough to wake him instantly. Minutes later, he was out the door and on his way to the crime scene, cup of instant coffee in hand.

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Nakamori Ginzou glared at the desk in front of him, filled with different plans to finally catch Kaitou KID. He hated that the ones he felt were most likely to work had the least chance to be allowed to be put in place. That and the damn thief was too labile for a set of pre-planned traps to really work against him. Unfortunately, Nakamori had nothing close to the thief’s ability to change plans in an instant. But he’d be damned if he let KID get away without a fight. Nakamori would catch him, no matter how long it took.

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Shinchi was sitting at a desk in the far corner of Division One’s bullpen, avoiding his parents. They’d discovered somehow (he suspected Agasa) exactly how dangerous taking the APTX antidote had been, and promptly flew back to Japan to smother him. Realistically, no one who knew Shinichi would have trouble finding him here; he was hoping he could brainstorm a place to bivouac before his mother finished hunting through his friends. Agasa and Ran’s were out, and although Heiji would try to help, he was too horrible at lying to actually hide Shinichi’s presence. Maybe he could crash with Akai?

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“We’re going to watch this one!” Aoko declared.

“Eh? A whole movie?! Is it even subtitled?” Kaito argued.

“You're good at English, you can explain stuff if it gets confusing.”

“But—“

“It says it’s comedy, with adventures and sword-fighting.”

“A movie about swashbucklers? Ahoko, why didn’t you say that from the start?”

“Swash-buckle…What are you talking about Bakaito?”

“It’s got awesome adventures and sword-fighting, so it must be swashbucklers!”

Aoko stared at Kaito’s dramatic pose for a moment before rolling her eyes and shoving him off the couch.

“OI!”

“Since Bakaito isn’t sitting, you can put the movie in.”

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Takagi had been dismayed to find out he’d been assigned to a desk, effectively banned from active cases after getting injured. That was before he’d seen the contents of the file on said desk. He’d been going through the collection, taking notes as he put together potential clues, for three days now. Holding up the threat letter that had confirmed his conclusion, Takagi grabbed the other officers’ attention as he stood.

Any onlookers would have gaped in awe if they were able to see an entire Division of Tokyo’s police galvanized into action by three short words:

“They’re targeting Conan.”

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“Whoever decided to call you a gentleman thief has clearly never met you in person.” He felt the comment was justified, having just been forced to dodge a series of traps that left the Taskforce officers stuck to the wall in a variety of embarrassing poses.

“How rude, Tantei-san. I take pride in being a gentleman, you know? All my shows are planned with utmost prévenance.”

Hakuba snorted derisively at KID and dryly responded, “Yes, Nakamori-keibu has a great need to be stuffed into atrocious costumes.”

The white-clad thief smirked in response. “I’m merely helping my audience to be well-dressed.”

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This...was not what he had expected to happen. To be honest, after coming to terms with being shrunk, he'd only had wishful dreams of returning to his life after catching the men who'd poisoned him. Those dreams had been crushed the instant he truly understood the scope of the Black Organization. And now, Shinichi was faced with the detritus that was left of his life in the aftermath of the takedown. He'd completely missed four years, his friends only knew he'd disappeared...and Shinichi was alone, trying to pick up enough pieces to make a life he actually wanted to live.

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Bourbon listened to the feed from the recorder Vermouth was carrying as the woman verbally lured her contact into a trap; manipulating the conversation so subtly he doubted the unfortunate man would realize what had happened until it was far too late. It was like seeing a spider slowly reeling in its prey on a gossamer thread, until it was inescapably caught in the center of the web. He resolved to increase his vigilance any time he was in the woman’s presence, so that he’d have a chance to counter anything she became bored enough to throw in his way.

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Hakuba Saguru sometimes wondered what people were expecting when they asked him about the most challenging/strange cases he’d solved. True, his average cases tended to be significantly less outré than Kudo’s (barring KID heists, which were their own special version of bizarre) but Saguru had run into a number of truly strange crimes. Saguru had a feeling most of them were attempting to get him to gossip about KID heists; the thief was basically a celebrity to the media. With some of the worst gossipers he described cases that would be too disturbing to pass on, just to spite them.

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Heiji frowned down at his best friend, who was examining yet another body. The reactions of the officers indicated that Shinichi’s involvement with the case was both expected and axiomatic. Seeing as the Heisei Holmes had only returned to being full-sized three months ago, that implied Shinichi was encountering a worrying number of cases. Heiji didn’t know the officers who’d shown up, but neither of them had made more than a token effort to investigate and take statements before standing back and watching the teenagers. Maybe he could get Otaki-han to shame the Tokyo division into doing their collective jobs?

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Shinichi really wished his mother was less crazy about getting him to ‘meet someone’. She had ambushed him as he was getting back from his latest case and dragged him to get clothes before heading to this party. Shinichi had then been steered around the room and introduced to what felt like every single woman present, except there were still more. Being paraded around like this was bad enough, but the girl in front of him started to simper at him while fluttering her eyelashes, and Shinichi was just done. The second his mom’s grip loosened enough, he was leaving.

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Saguru stared blankly at Nakamori-keibu for a few moments before asking, “You’re doing what?”

“I’m assigning you to lead a squad during the next KID heist,” Nakamori repeated impatiently, “Do your best to break their viridity and assumptions of invincibility without letting them get traumatized enough they all quit, would you?”

Suspicions roused, he asked cautiously, “Who exactly will be in this squad?”

Nakamori-keibu’s response was to shove a handful of papers at him. Taking the papers, he let himself out of the office. Glancing at the names listed Saguru grimaced; KID would trounce the lot of them in seconds.

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Conan blinked bemusedly at the sight in front of him. He’d arrived late to the KID heist tonight due to having to wait longer than he’d thought to escape Ran’s supervision. Looking at the state of the museum room, he was glad he’d been late.

The entire room looked like it had been tie-dyed, including the Task force members still chasing KID around the room. There was glitter suffusing the air of the room, thick clouds of it following in KID’s wake. Conan settled in the doorway to watch; he couldn’t risk tracking the glitter back with him after all.

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I’ll probably have to use spitzenburgs, Kaito mused to himself, although pomegranates would be more on theme…really, whose idea was it to call this one Persephone’s heart?

He frowned at the blueprints in front of him as he went over the needed setup in his head. I doubt I can manage to get that many pomegranates at this time of year…would Jii-chan know who to get them from?

Kaito considered the amount of time before the planned heist (still need to send that notice) and made a decision. Worst comes to worst, I can paint them to look like pomegranates.

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Sonoko squealed in delight. There was a new emporium opening downtown this weekend, and it would be absolutely perfect for a shopping spree! Better yet, the place had advertised that they specialized in KID-sama's merchandise!! Looking through the advertisement, Sonoko wanted to buy everything they had, which wasn't surprising; it was her KID-sama after all. She would have to plan to get there early, it wouldn't do to sleep in and arrive late only to find everything was sold out. They were even having an opening sale; Sonoko couldn't wait to get her hands on one of those KID-sama plushies!!

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Saguru was beginning to be exasperated by KID’s antics, and it wasn’t because he was a teenage prankster thief. He would admit (if only to himself) that the thief was annoyingly hard to catch, but that was only a miniscule part of his frustration. No, Saguru was exasperated because the damn thief seemingly insisted on being morally ambiguous. He knew Kuroba, well enough to know the prankster magician wouldn’t just become a thief for his own amusement. There were extenuating circumstances that convinced the idiot that becoming a thief was the only good plan, and Kuroba refused to share them!

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Conan’s eyes sharpened as the individual pieces of evidence he’d observed coalesced into a conclusive picture. It was unfortunate that the picture included shady hit-men who were possibly involved with the BO; Conan would have to be much more careful than just ‘hinting’ his observations to the police. To be honest, he’d half been expecting something like this because something a detective and the police force could deal with easily wouldn’t have led to this situation in the first place. No, now the hard part would be convincing his friendly rival that working together would solve things much more efficiently.

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"How narrow can ya get identifyin' where foliaceous plant matter is from?"

The forensic analyst frowned at him in confusion, "The type of plant is doable, but if it's common there could be a large area where it might be grown, why?"

Heiji held up a picture of the crime scene, "Tha guy didn't have any plants in his apartment, and tha only trees around tha buildin' shed needles, not leaves. This," he held up an evidence bag holding a single leaf, "woulda been tracked in by someone else if tha guy was home all day like his landlady said."

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“We think KID delivered a new notice.”

He blinked at the officer’s abrupt greeting before cautiously asking, “You think?”

The man held out a photocopy and Saguru frowned at the apparent gibberish followed by the usual doodle. “I see,” he murmured, “the KID doodle looks authentic…I believe this is written with a runic alphabet, possibly futhark.”

“So you can read it?” The officer interrupted eagerly.

“No. I need to research a bit to determine if this is futhark or a different alphabet, and it will probably take a while to translate, since it’s likely KID did something other than straight transliteration.”

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“How did you do it?”

“I have my ways.”

Conan huffed in annoyance, “James-san basically admitted the FBI would gladly work with you, the internationally wanted criminal.”

“Tantei-kun, no self-respecting magician would divulge their secrets just like that,” KID replied with a teasing grin.

Conan crossed his arms and gave the thief a flat stare, “What did you tell them.”

“Just some interesting information they’d overlooked.” Conan waited expectantly, and KID made a placating gesture, “Nothing that would hurt me, Tantei-kun, no need to be so concerned.”

His grin widened as Conan spluttered with embarrassment at being read so easily.

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KID cheerily greeted the officers gathered below him, grinning wickedly as his trick caused even Nakmori to gape in disbelief. It had taken a lot of effort to set this up in time for the heist; it would have been disappointing if his Taskforce ignored his magic show. He strolled casually towards his target, retrieving it from the case with ease as the police continued to stare in bewilderment.

The Taskforce watched in confusion as KID proceeded to glide with flexuous, eerily graceful movements out of the hall; having done all of it while hovering seven feet above the floor.

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“Hey, you guys—“

“Who are you? You won’t be able to stop our grand plan!” Genta proclaimed with a glare.

“Isn’t it obvious from his strange outfit? He’s tellurian.” Conan deadpanned at Haibara as the other three paused in confusion.

“Ah!” Ayumi exclaimed, “Could he be the famous Tellurian?!”

“Ahahaha…” Deciding an explanation would be too troublesome; Conan went with it, “So my reputation precedes me.”

Mitsuhiko immediately shouted “Be wary! He’s able to read the secrets of any opponent he faces!”

At least they’re not walking into traffic anymore, Conan thought as he was dragged into their game.

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“Your scolding was more caustic than usual.”

Glancing at Conan slumped in the backseat next to her she pointed out, “You didn’t stop me.”

“Maybe next time they’ll listen when we say it’s dangerous.” Haibara stayed silent, and Conan continued, “I almost didn’t make it this time; if I had been a few seconds slower…” the edge of fear in his voice was clearer than she’d ever heard when they were facing the Black Organization.

“Next time we’ll make sure they can’t sneak anywhere.”

“What; lock them up?”

“If we have to,” she smirked as Conan laughed and finally relaxed.

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“…and of course, his lambent wit only adds to KID-sama’s gentlemanly character!”

“How would you know, you’ve never talked to him,” Conan interrupted, having been forced to listen to Sonoko squealing about KID for far too long today.

“As if you'd know any better brat,” huffed Sonoko.

Conan made a face at her before returning to his book. If I told her how often we talk after heists she’d never shut up, he thought. Mentally groaning as Sonoko resumed her litany of “KID-sama’s” he decided to go find the Shounen Tantei; at least they would only talk about catching KID.

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Kaito felt himself grinning widely as he spotted a familiar distinctive hairstyle near Hakuba and Nakamori-keibu. He hadn’t been this eager for his heist to begin in a while.

Making his entrance standing on the display case of his target, he bowed theatrically towards the detective, exclaiming, “Meitantei! Allow me to offer my felicitations on your return!”

His grin turned mischievous as the Heisei Holmes responded with amusement, “From what Conan said, I wasn’t expecting this kind of friendly greeting, KID-san.”

“A magician can’t let his audience be disappointed,” Kaito teased as he dodged the Taskforce and began the chase.

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Just looking at KID’s latest heist notice was giving Saguru a headache. In a complete departure from his usual style, the thief had apparently chosen to model his notice after a medieval illuminated manuscript. Except, instead of single letters, entire words had been historiated, using the most blindingly bright colors of ink possible. Thus the notice became an eye-watering, headache-inducing eyesore. Saguru couldn’t even save his eyes by examining a black and white copy instead; as it was very likely that the decoration was the note rather than being just garish distraction, so the colors were probably symbolic as well.

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The Taskforce falters as KID’s trap activates, turning the floor beneath them abruptly slick and sending those who continue the chase skidding across the room. Shinichi, seeming unfazed, purposefully slides across the slick patch of floor and promptly retaliates.

KID dodges the black and white ball with aplomb as it ricochets around the room, whistling in appreciation as it bounces to a stop in front of the detective.

“Impressive, Tantei-kun. How long did it take to calculate all those rebounds?”

Shinichi smirks, “Aren’t you always saying not to reveal secrets?”

KID grins with theatric excitement, “Tantei-kun! You’re becoming a magician!”

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Shinichi was planning his public reappearance; sprawled on the couch in the apartment he'd found as soon as Haibara had assured herself the antidote had no unexpected side-effects. The Black Organization had finally been dismantled enough for him to go out in public without a disguise. He knew that as soon as the media caught wind of his 'return' he'd be bombarded by reporters. Thus he was planning an exoteric story so he wouldn't contradict himself. He also needed to sort out which details he would share with the Police (and who he might be able to tell about Conan).

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Mouri Ran was on the warpath. Sato-keiji had called to inform her just minutes earlier that the station had received a series of letters threatening her young charge. Ran had nearly broken her cellphone when hearing the news due to gripping it too tightly, and rushed to the station to demand to know what the police were doing to protect Conan from the threat sender.

 Those not familiar with the karate champion were shocked at the usually genial girl’s deadly aura and terrifying expression as she stormed through the police station towards Division One, leaving cringing officers in her wake.

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Saguru was unsure what had brought Edogawa Conan and his guardians to Ekoda, but he was beginning to think there was more truth to the rumors than he’d initially believed. Every time he’d met the young detective they had encountered a case, and Saguru had noticed Conan’s astonishing ability to notice clues that others seemed to miss.

“How can you stand to listen to his maundering through every case like this?” he hissed to Conan as Kogoro immediately jumped to conclusions.

The child detective looked up from scanning the ground for clues with a huff, “I don’t. Listen, that is.”

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Being a child was frustrating—and it wasn’t because it was difficult to get the police to listen when a case happened, he’d found ways around that. He’d gotten to know Sato-keiji and Takagi-keiji well enough that he could give them the right hints without blatantly knowing more than he should; and if hints didn’t work, well, there was always his watch.

No, the most frustrating thing about being a child again was that he was just too small. It was the everyday minutiae of life, so many things that he could do as Shinichi that were impossible as Conan.

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Kaito was pouting down at the plans for his next heist. He already knew that it was going to be far too easy—he was really missing Tantei-kun, and the detective had only missed one heist!

Thankfully for his need to be challenged, Hakuba was usually too canny to fall for the same trick more than once. He almost never went after the dummies for example, while the Taskforce…well; their favorite strategy was still ‘dogpile’. Kaito was seriously hoping Nakamori-keibu came up with something creative enough it would force Kaito to plan around it…maybe he should send his notice early?

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When Conan heard ‘KID-sama’s heist’ in the midst of Sonoko’s chattering to Ran, he couldn’t keep from listening. He might have felt guilty for eavesdropping, but with his daily life comprised of kiddie school and murder cases, KID heists were probably a major reason he was still sane. Chasing KID was always an exhilarating challenge, and that he could drop the child-act around the thief was a bonus he couldn’t give up. If Conan was honest with himself, he didn’t think about catching KID anymore—not when he felt more alive during heists than he had since he’d been shrunk.

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Kaito’s classmates regarded him with consternation as he sat calmly at his desk, appearing to take notes. Of course, they had no way of knowing that he was actually doing calculations for the newest trick he was planning. Hakuba probably would have figured it out had he been present, but as he was currently off in England (on some kind of case? Kaito hadn’t paid much attention) Kaito didn’t need to worry about keeping the nosy detective out of his plans. He’d seen an outline of this trick in his father’s notes, and Kaito was determined to make it work.

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KID watched the detective next to him process his (reluctantly given) explanation, hiding his nerves behind his Poker Face. He wouldn’t have even considered telling Tantei-kun about this if his unwelcome fans hadn’t just tried to use the detective to threaten him.

“…so you’re telling me that there’s a murderous criminal organization that's looking for some kind of Noachian magic jewel that turns red in moonlight and supposedly cries tears of immortality?”

“You don’t believe me? Tantei-kun, I’m hurt.”

Conan huffed, “I didn’t say that, stupid thief.” Rolling his eyes, he continued, “I have a few ideas that might help.”

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“What the hell?!” Conan hissed at his parents, “Did you seriously think kidnapping me would convince me to just leave with you?”

Agasa at least had the grace to look sheepish; his father merely raised an eyebrow at him. “We came to the conclusion that you weren’t taking the situation seriously when we heard that you were planning to do everything on your own, without help.”

Conan folded his arms and glared, “Just take me back.”

“Mou, Shin-chan, you can’t leave yet, your acting is egregious!”

He eyed his mother warily, knowing it was too late to escape her ‘training’.

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Ran watched in concern as Conan-kun headed for the office table to do his homework. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but something about her charge was…off. Conan-kun wasn’t acting sad or upset, nor did he seem overly frustrated. Ran was convinced that something had happened, but couldn’t think of anything in the last two days that might be the cause. Frowning as she watched Conan’s lackadaisical movements as he worked, she realized that Conan-kun seemed…bored, or maybe apathetic was better. He hadn’t even been interested in her dad’s cases! Resolving to cheer Conan-kun up, Ran started planning.

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Of course , Shinichi thought dryly, KID would hold this heist on Halloween.

The particular brooch KID was targeting had such macabre legends attached to it that there was really no chance of KID stealing it on any other day of the year. Supposedly every person who had worn the brooch died tragically young, and every story Shinichi managed to find had heavily implied supernatural involvement; if they didn’t blatantly state that the brooch was haunted. Going by the heist notice, KID was embracing the theme. Shinichi hopes the Taskforce won’t be permanently traumatized when KID pulls his hinted ‘phantasm’ trick.

~~

Plus a bonus:

~~

“GET HIM!!!” Roars Nakamori-keibu, and the Taskforce obey as one, lunging forward to grab the smirking thief. The officers pause in confusion when they realize that KID hasn’t escaped as usual. He’s standing in place still smirking widely, idly tossing the brooch as if the dogpile of officers hasn’t even touched him—and they collectively pale as they realize they are dogpiled through his legs. KID has somehow managed to become a literal phantom thief—complete with an eerie glow that adds a creepily unsettling emphasis to the fact that their thief has become transparent and insubstantial.

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"Nakamori-keibu," Saguru spoke up as the inspector paused for breath, "I believe this particular notice to be apocryphal."

"What are you talking about; the thing is damn near perfect, doodle and all!" was the inspector's response as he waved a card in the teen's face.

Saguru shook his head, "Whoever sent this isn't quite as subtle as they think; I believe a third party wants KID there."

Nakamori-keibu growled, "Stupid idiots trying to get in the way of catching that damn thief."

As the inspector turned to bellow new orders, Saguru was making plans to investigate circumstances around the 'target'.

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“Not really surprisin’ ya can sneak inta crime scene’s what with bein’ too tiny ta see.”

“OI!”

“S’true though, yer practic’ly Lilliputian.”

“You’re about to get a soccer ball to the face if you don’t shut up, Hattori.”

The Osakan detective grinned at his Eastern counterpart, “Ya could even be famous for it: Kudo tha travel-size detective.”

If looks could kill, Heji would have been murdered multiple times over by the glare Conan was giving him as he turned on his power shoes.

“Hattori. Run.” Heiji made a break for it as Conan kicked the nearest object at his head.

Chapter Text

Shinichi’s head snaps up at the sound of an excited squee just in time to see his mother imitating a missile aimed in his direction. He barely has time for shocked recognition before he’s nearly knocked out of his chair as she glomps him and holds on as if he’s about to disappear. Shinichi’s automatic protest is stifled before it’s more than half-formed as he catches sight of his father standing in the doorway looking relieved. They probably had only listened long enough to hear he’d been in danger before hanging up and booking the next flight back to Japan.

Chapter Text

“Kuroba, are you ichthyophobic?”

The magician’s expression blanked as he answered, “Why would you ask that?”

Saguru raised an eyebrow at his classmate, “You’ve caused a distraction anytime Keiko-chan mentions going to an aquarium.”

Kuroba visibly winced, forcing a laugh, “It’s not like I can just tell them; it’s such a silly—“

“It’s really not.”

The magician gaped at him, “It—y-you—what?”

“Have you heard of onomotophobia? What about turophobia? Arithmopohobia?”

Kuroba shook his head.

“I’ve met people with each: the fear of names, cheese, and numbers respectively.”

“…Thanks Hakuba,” Kuroba grinned and bounced back to their group.

Chapter Text

“What’s your opinion of Kaitou KID?”

Shinichi blinked at the abrupt question from the blond detective before shrugging, “He’s interesting, I suppose.”

Hakuba frowned in confusion, “I hadn’t thought you’d be the type to espouse thievery, Kudo-san, considering how determined your cousin seemed to catch KID.”

Shinichi smiled wryly. “It’s not that I’m a fan, but since KID has been mostly nonviolent I’m of the opinion he’s relatively harmless. From what I’ve heard, Conan enjoyed the challenge of chasing the thief more than anything else.”

Hakuba froze in disbelief and Shinichi excused himself before the blond could become properly indignant.

Chapter Text

“You once told me that it’s a detective’s job to find the motives behind a crime, but even the greatest detectives cannot deduce without first finding a lead.”

The silence stretched until Saguru thought the thief had decided not to respond before KID slowly turned to face him, asking teasingly, “Tantei-san, did you just ask me for a hint?”

“Yes.”  KID seemed disconcerted, giving the detective a measuring look as Saguru tried not to fidget.

“Kaitou KID will not retire or be caught until his devoir is completed,” the thief declared solemnly, and KID vanished in a flurry of white.

Chapter Text

“You,” Haibara glared at Conan in unadulterated fury, “had better remember this the next time you have the bright idea to go through with one of your stupidly risky plans because you’re the only one endangered by it.” She ignored his attempt to protest and continued, “This idiotic gambit could have easily gotten you killed, or worse. Did you even think about what would happen if one of Them decided to capture you? How many NOCs are you in contact with now? You know far too much about Them, and everyone currently fighting Them. You are not an acceptable sacrifice!”

Chapter Text

Conan was exhausted. He was so excessively tired he had even thought that Heiji's talk about being cursed might have some merit (only for a few seconds, but still). The entire week had been fraught with cases. All he wanted to do was lie down and sleep, but he was stuck in kiddie school, and if he fell asleep he was sure the teachers would talk to Ran about making his bedtime earlier. Conan hated to admit it, but if he didn't get a break from secretly solving cases he might just collapse in the middle of a deduction show.

Chapter Text

“I would say you’re getting too predictable, but then we wouldn’t be able to chat as much.”

Kid forced himself not to react to the unexpected (familiar) voice beyond turning sharply to his left to see Edogawa Conan standing next to the building’s heating unit. Since the Black Star heist, he’d more-or-less ignored the incongruity of a six-year-old genius detective, and instead gleefully designed tricks for his newest challenger.

“I didn’t see you at my show tonight,” he said lightly, “I think I’m feeling slighted, Tantei-kun.”

Conan rolled his eyes and laid out his deduction of Kid’s newest magic trick.

Chapter Text

Detectives, Kaito thought somewhat hysterically, must be programmed to follow posthaste any sound that might lead them to a case. It was the only possible explanation for Hakuba, Hattori, and Kudo appearing in the alley behind the theater within ten seconds of Kaito yelling in shock. Hattori and Kudo were focused on the woman lying in a puddle of blood, while Hakuba attempted to question Kaito. Honestly, he was glad they were focused on the woman (they called an ambulance, she's not a corpse yet) because he was definitely not calm enough to deal with all of them at once.

Chapter Text

Nakamori-keibu cursed under his breath as he stomped out of his boss’s office. It seemed like every foreign police officer in the world had decided to try their hand at catching KID, and Nakamori had just been ordered—for the second heist in a row—to leave the security to some smug officious bastard who’d decided Nakamori was incompetent. Dealing with teenage detectives was bad enough, but at least they listened to him, mostly. (Thank all the gods Hakuba-kun and Kudo-kun hadn’t argued about wearing body armor at heists: one terrifying incident with an armed impostor was more than enough).

Chapter Text

Conan flopped face-first onto his bed; too mentally exhausted and frustrated to move. Two years ago today he’d made a stupid mistake that got him poisoned by Gin. He still barely knew anything about the Black Organization; it was starting to feel like his fight to take them down would be sempiternal. Hadn’t Jodie-sensei said the FBI had been chasing them for decades? At this rate Conan would be an old man like Advisor Suzuki before it would be safe to ‘return’ as Shinichi. Obviously he needed to try something different…he sat up as he thought of an insane idea.

Chapter Text

"What did you say?!" Haibara hissed, "Dammit Edogawa, the entire point of having a secret identity is to remain incognito, not to tell everyone—"

"I didn't tell her anything, she found out on her own!"

"Probably because you can barely remember you're supposed to be in hiding! From the Organization that madwoman works for!"

Conan responded flatly, "Vermouth was friends with my mother; she's probably seen hundreds of pictures from when I was actually in grade school. Next time I need to hide from people who know me I'll make sure to find time to get an actual disguise."

Chapter Text

Kaito’s mouth pulled into a bittersweet smile as he hung up his father’s cape and hat for the last time. With some help from his detectives, Snake had finally been arrested. Tantei-kun then proceeded to hunt down every criminal who’d ever worked with Snake—Kid had pestered him relentlessly until Tantei-kun accepted his help—and then (together with far too many law enforcement agencies for Kaito’s taste) they’d given the coup de grâce to a more-than-slightly-terrifying international crime syndicate. He was glad KID’s mission was done, but he would miss his detectives…maybe he could invite them to his debut show?

Chapter Text

It took Conan an entire minute to recognize his fellow detective, “Ano…Hakuba-san, what happened to your hair?”

The (formerly) blonde detective sighed, running a hand through his multicolored neon hair, “My classmate,” he informed Conan, “is a notorious prankster. Everyone attending our school has been pranked by him at least once, and it’s rumored the teachers are too afraid of being in a room alone with him to give him detention.”

Conan blinked, raised an eyebrow and said flatly, “Your classmate dyed your hair with neon KID doodles.”

“Yes.”

“Accurate ones.”

“He does claim to be KID’s number one fan.”

Chapter Text

Conan scowled as he walked through the museum’s statue garden, searching for any clue that might explain his odd feeling of unease. Catching sight of something white half-hidden under a bush, he moved forward slowly, wary of traps. Conan froze when the object moved, and he abruptly realized it was a dove. Crouching down to see the bird better, he blinked at the tiny camera attached to the dove’s leg—part of the fastening had come loose and caught on the bush. Conan awkwardly tried to soothe KID’s dove before gingerly reaching in to ease it free from the bush.

Chapter Text

Conan paused in confusion at the feeling of déja vu as he registered the contents of Hakase’s fridge. He could swear those were the tupperwares Ran used to use back when she invaded his house regularly; determined to cook for him. Well, there was one way to find out, “...Haibara?”
“What.”
“Why is the fridge full of tupperware from next door?”
“Subaru-san decided the best way for him to infiltrate the household would be to bring over anything remotely comestible in hopes of inspiring good will.”
“...is it working?”
Haibara gave him a flat look, “ He’s even more suspicious.”

Chapter Text

Sonoko glared in frustration at the sorry-looking, sodden mess in the pan in front of her. It was supposed to be a cake to celebrate her wonderful boyfriend’s victory at that tournament, but there was no way she could give him this…thing. She didn’t understand what went wrong; she’d even double-checked the recipe! How could she give a romantic victory cake to her beloved Makoto if they kept turning out awful?! Glaring at her latest attempt again for good measure, Sonoko pulled out her phone.

“Ran! You’re good at baking right? I need your cooking magic for Makoto’s victory cake!”

Chapter Text

Kaito stepped into class later than usual only to freeze in shock at the sight of Akako and Aoko merrily chatting together. He felt justified in taking a moment to restart his brain, since just yesterday the witch had seemed utterly uninterested in such mundane things as friendship, instead surrounding herself with droves of fawning (enchanted) teenagers. He might be regretting not walking to school with Aoko if this was the result. On the other hand…he didn’t think he’d actually seen Akako smile before. Kaito decided to leave it alone, but keep an eye out for Aoko just in case.

Chapter Text

“You,” Haibara hissed, “Have all the self-preservation instincts of a two-year-old.”

“Hey!”

Narrowing her eyes at Conan, she continued, “No, you’re right, that would be an insult to toddlers. How many times do I have to reiterate that your recklessness, and especially your utter inability to avoid attention can and will get you killed?!”

“Haibara, I can’t just—“

“You can. You just refuse to. How many people have you had to avoid suspicion from because you’re too impatient to keep your cover? You see a case and everything else is ignored, including your need to stay under the radar!”

Chapter Text

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Shinichi wondered why he'd agreed to help with this investigation. The victim's husband was insisting one of his stepchildren had killed the woman over a family heirloom, with all evidence pointed against that theory other than the 'missing' object. Unfortunately, Shinichi was certain the missing necklace would have the evidence he needed to prove the culprit's identity.
Shinichi blinked as he was forced to reconfigure his plans due to the unexpected permutation that had just shoved its way into his day.
"KID," he greeted the thief, "I wasn't aware you announced a heist today."

Chapter Text

Haibara often wished she had more fortitude. She hated the feeling of being frozen with overwhelming fear. Even knowing that fear was probably the reason she could sense Them and that it had saved her life multiple times, she wished she had the courage to act even while terrified. Haibara wished it most often when she thought that fortitude might enable her to force the idiot calling himself a detective to listen to her instead of running headfirst into mortal danger. Next time, Haibara decided, she'd grab him and sit on him if necessary until he made a reasonable plan.

Chapter Text

KID stood on the roof, arm outstretched to the moon, frozen in incredulous shock. Confirming it wasn’t merely wishful thinking; there in the center of the sapphire which should have shone a flawless blue, the core was shining a rich violet. The only outward sign of KID’s euphoria was a slowly widening grin. Footsteps in the stairwell prompted him to slip the gem into a hidden pocket, and he turned to watch as his detective slammed through the door, caught sight of him and warily scanned the roof for traps.

“Tantei-kun,” KID greeted, “I’m afraid you can’t have this one.”

Chapter Text

“You all brought this on yourselves,” Shinichi informed his friends as Hattori grinned triumphantly at him. Walking to the song selector, he ignored Ran and Sonoko’s amusement and Toyama and Sera’s confusion. As petty revenge for Hattori’s continued pestering, Shinichi selected a song he knew was one of the Osakan’s favorites. What followed was a performance so lackluster it had his friends grimacing before he’d finished singing the first verse. Shinichi was making absolutely no effort to follow the tune of the song- and was feeling rather smug about it as he watched Hattori cringing as the song was mutilated.

Chapter Text

Mitsuhiko glanced at Conan-kun in worry. His friend was at his desk, diligently filling out the worksheet they’d been given. Anyone else looking would have thought nothing was wrong with Conan-kun but Mitsuhiko knew better. Conan-kun wasn’t like the other detective boys; he never had trouble with homework. Sometimes it seemed like Conan-kun knew everything, he was that smart. Mitsuhiko would swear that once he’d seen Conan-kun finish an assignment before Kobayashi-sensei had even finished handing it out! Seeing Conan-kun still actually working on the math problems meant something was very wrong, and Mitsuhiko was determined to find out what.

Chapter Text

“Are you insane?” KID couldn’t believe his detective had been the one to suggest this.

The (tiny) detective gave him a flat look in response. True, he’d helped the kid several times before (and regularly disguised himself as police officers), but this (working with multiple law enforcement agencies as himself) was completely different!

“Tantei-kun, you should know by now that I don’t want to be arrested,” KID said in a teasing tone.

Conan rolled his eyes, “I already talked to Black-san. He said his contacts in Interpol are willing to declare you worked as a NOC and expunge your record.”

Chapter Text

“KID-san, there’s something you should know.”

The thief paused in his teasing; his littlest critic looked unusually serious, “I’m listening Tantei-kun.”

“I’m actually Kudo Shinichi.” KID stared blankly, stunned by the unexpected revelation. His Tantei-kun was a teenager? Was he cursed somehow? “I’m living with the Mouris because I was force-fed a poison and it shrank me instead of killing me.”

His thoughts screeched to a halt as the detective’s outlandish explanation failed to compute, and he realized, “Ah, good one Tantei-kun, you almost got me!” KID grinned delightedly, he knew there was a reason Tantei-kun was his favorite critic.

Chapter Text

Conan walked down the street, impervious to the weather buffeting him. Others rushed past him as they tried to escape the sudden rainstorm as swiftly as possible. Lost in thought, the detective didn't notice that he was already soaked to the bone, or that his feet had arrived at a familiar building.

A sharp pain had him blinking at the wall in confusion—when had he gone inside? Hearing his name shouted he turned toward the voice and blinked again.

“Sato-keiji?”

“Oh, thank goodness—Conan-kun, are you injured?”

He shook his head and bemusedly let the police fuss over him.

Chapter Text

“Hakuba-kun, are you all right?”

Saguru looked up from his desk and attempted a reassuring smile for his classmate. From the expression on Aoko-kun’s face, it was unsuccessful.

“I’m just tired; KID’s heist last night went unusually late,” he explained. Saguru had only gotten four hours of sleep—he had no idea how Kuroba was managing to cause mass chaos as usual instead of appearing as haggard as Saguru felt. Even exhausted, Saguru would have noticed the nuisance sleeping during classes. Kuroba had probably planned for it, Saguru thought uncharitably, as the prankster set off yet another cloud of smoke.

Chapter Text

“You know,” Conan said contemplatively, “With all the times you’ve impersonated Shinichi-niichan without getting caught, you could be a detective.”

“Tantei-kun!! How could you impugn my honor like that?”

“Should I be insulted?” Conan wondered, “Since apparently being a detective is dishonorable.”

 “You called me a critic! How could you be so cruel?” The thief clutched his heart dramatically.

Conan blinked, “I didn’t think you were so narrow-minded, KID.”

“You did it again!” Kid mock sobbed, “Will you call me predictable next?”

“Now that you mention it…” Rolling his eyes at KID’s continued theatrics, Conan went to return tonight’s jewel.

Chapter Text

Opening the door to his classroom, Saguru was greeted with a cloud of colorful smoke. Pinching his nose tiredly, he sighed, “Kuroba…what have I done to irritate you?”

Kuroba’s bland response of “Exist.” had Saguru reconsidering his belief that he’d begun to befriend the magician. It also brought to mind several unpleasant experiences he’d had due to being labeled as ‘foreign’.

“I hadn’t realized you took offense at the existence of persons of mixed heritage. Or do you only discriminate against blondes?”

Kuroba blinked at him, “It’d be silly for me to be offended at myself, my mom’s from France.”

Chapter Text

“Hattori,” Shinichi said flatly into his phone, “What are you doing in Beika?”

“What’re ya talkin’ about, Kudo?”

Shinichi rolled his eyes, “Hattori, a case literally fell in front of me not ten minutes ago.”

“Ah.”

“So?”

There was a lengthy pause, “I can’t just wanna visit a friend, Kudo?”

“It’s you, so no.”

“Rude, Kudo,” Shinichi just waited expectantly, “ Kazuha wanted ta visit Neechan, so I thought I’d come see ya!”

“Enough mendaciousness, Hattori, what do you want?”

“Fine, fine, ya got me, there’s a case.”

“You’ll have to wait, Hattori,” ignoring the squawked protest, Shinchi hung up.

Chapter Text

Sato Miwako looked up as Conan-kun’s doctor approached her with a grim expression.

“Sato-keiji, you’re familiar with Edogawa-kun, correct?”

“Yes,” Miwako confirmed, worried Conan-kun had another serious injury.

“How long has he been living with Mouri-san?”

“I think…about half a year? Why?”

“I am required to report evidence that Edogawa-kun has previously been abused.”

“What!” Sato hissed furiously.

“His X-ray shows signs of numerous healed breaks all over his body. This is a summary.”

Miwako was horrified by the list of injuries. She doubted any of her fellow officers had broken more bones than Conan-kun, and he was only six!

Chapter Text

Sonoko eagerly watched the seconds tick towards 8PM: thirty seconds left. One final check of the webpage ensured that everything had been entered correctly. Ten seconds. She hovered the cursor over the button, poised to click her mouse.

Now! Sonoko watched with baited breath as the webpage loaded…

Thank you for your order.

Success! Sonoko had managed to be one of the fans to obtain the limited edition figurine of her KID-sama! She had the perfect place to display it already prepared, right where she could see it every morning. Cheering, she picked up her phone to share the news.

Chapter Text

“…and here he is.” Hakuba sounded so resigned that Shinichi blinked in surprise. A cloud of smoke briefly obscured their table, clearing to reveal a widely grinning dark-haired teen.

“Hakuba!” the newcomer exclaimed cheerily, “Making new friends?”

Groaning, the blond replied, “Go away, Kuroba.”

Shinichi eyed Kuroba curiously, “Is this the classmate you were telling me about?” He took Hakuba’s defeated groan as agreement.

“I’m Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire!” the magician produced a rose. Shinichi eyed it (friendship, huh?) for a moment before accepting the flower.

“Kudo Shinichi,” he replied, eyes glinting with mischief, “So…Hakuba alleges that you’re Kaitou KID.”

Chapter Text

“Oi, oi, are you planning to handcuff me now too?” Kuroba looked disgruntled.

“That would be counterproductive; you’ve already told me it wasn't a sufficient alibi.” Shinichi eyed Kuroba in challenge, “Stipulating your absence from the heist entirely would be more conclusive, don’t you think?”

Hakuba huffed, “You can’t prove that—KID is capable of disguising himself as anyone and his accomplice has already proved themselves capable of acting as KID without being caught.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Shinichi smirked, “All you need—mmph.”

“Kuroba!” Hakuba glared at the magician who'd lunged across the table to cover Shinichi’s mouth.

Chapter Text

“If I ever see the damned misbegotten bast—”

“Tou-san!!” Kogoro turns at the sound of his daughter’s scolding tones to see her crouched with her hands over Conan-kun’s ears as the brat blinks at him in confusion. He grumbles an apology and strides back to his desk, angrily shuffling the papers that had caused his outburst out of view. Ran will take the news that the brat was abused badly as it is, she doesn’t need to see the proof of it highlighted in the x-rays of every one of the brat’s bones.

He needs to talk to Eri.

Chapter Text

To KID, hate was a rare emotion. When he’d encountered Snake for the first time, he’d felt hatred—he hadn’t thought it was possible to dislike anyone as much as he did Snake—but he mainly wanted to stop the man before he could destroy anyone else’s family.

Seeing these x-rays, however, he wanted to hunt down whoever had done this to Tantei-kun and make them suffer for it. There was no question in his mind that this had been done to Tantei-kun, and that the kind of monsters who could do that to a child deserved to be hated.

Chapter Text

KID smirked as he listened to Suzuki Jirokichi bragging about his newest ‘impregnable’ security system. Even unable to physically see the security the man was describing, KID already had three possible methods to circumvent it. He would continue listening to the bug he had planted on Mouri-tantei for a while, of course, just to ensure he and Jii-chan hadn’t missed anything important during their reconnaissance trip. The fact that he had yet to catch sight of Tantei-kun, however, might make actually checking the jewel during this heist a challenge, depending on where his favorite critic had decided to ambush him.

Chapter Text

Conan watched Nakamori-keibu exhort the Taskforce, proclaiming that this time, they would catch Kaitou KID. He wondered what they were planning; he’d been chased away by Kogoro before the man went to talk to Nakamori-keibu, so he hadn’t been able to listen. The inspector had come up with admittedly creative plans before, but Conan doubted this plan would be effective—not because the plans were bad; the Taskforce weren’t quite good enough at improvising when KID found a loophole they hadn’t expected. Honestly, Conan thought their main problem was letting the thief goad them into jumping at him every time.

Chapter Text

Not for the first time, Conan wondered when he’d gotten so used to the Shounen Tanteidan that he let them drag him anywhere they wanted. (He blamed Haibara’s continued insistence that he should ‘act his age’.) This particular outing had been suggested by Ayumi, so Conan probably shouldn’t have been so surprised that none of the others were willing to argue against it. So here he was, in the audience of a magic show, trying not to fall asleep. Compared to Kid’s feats of legerdemain, this magician whose tricks Conan could deduce before they even started was barely a novice.

Chapter Text

Saguru was fairly certain he was going into shock. He had tagged KID with a listening device during the heist and it hadn’t been immediately discarded, so Saguru guessed his arrest-attempt-distraction had been sufficient for KID to overlook the small device. He’d intended to use the device as a way to prove that Kuroba was KID, although he knew it was unlikely the thief or his accomplice would say anything incriminating. Instead, Saguru was listening to an unknown criminal attempt to dragoon KID into giving away tonight’s target by threatening to kill the thief (again?!) if he refused to cooperate.

Chapter Text

Tantei-kun stared at him incredulously. “You’re telling me there’s a shady gang looking for a stone that glows in moonlight, that they believe produces some kind of elixir, and they’re trying to kill you because you told them you’d find it first and destroy it.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Why haven’t you told anyone before?!”

KID raised an eyebrow, “Oh, I’ll just tell the police that I’m from a family of phantom thieves and my father was killed by men whose actual identities I don’t know over a stone I can’t prove exists.”

The detective huffed, “When you put it that way…”

Chapter Text

“Kudo-kun,” Haibara said sharply, “At this rate my prognosis is that you will develop complete immunity before I can create a functioning permanent antidote. You cannot keep using the temporary antidotes as your main plan to get out of trouble. I would hesitate to give you an antidote for even life-threatening situations, considering how regularly you seem to run straight into them instead of exercising what little self-preservation you have.”

The detective was wide-eyed, “How…how long…?”

“If you continue to use the temporary antidotes at your current rate, I expect you will become completely immune in less than a year.”

Chapter Text

Again? Conan thought as he stared at the news article. What artifice does he use to keep finding these things?
Suzuki Jirokichi’s challenge blared across the front page of the paper, daring KID to try to steal an (insanely expensive) gem—from inside a wooden chest made by Samizu Kichiemon. If this chest was anything like the Iron Tanuki—Conan grimaced remembering the violent traps that had been set off—he didn’t want to be in the room when KID tried to open it. He'd focus on predicting what route KID would use as an escape and ambush the thief.

Chapter Text

Conan stares at the innocent-looking flash drive in the thief’s hand in shock, not quite able to process that Kaitou KID had infiltrated one of Their bases, hacked into Their database, and escaped unscathed.

“ You-you’re certain?” he manages to ask shakily.

“You doubt my skills, Meitantei?”

He shakes his head at the thief’s teasing grin, finally picking up the flash drive. He needs to convoke everyone, this is their best chance to take down the Black Organization and it’s likely everyone will be needed to pull it off. The plan needs to be perfect; any mistake could become deadly.

Chapter Text

“That damn thief, setting this idiotic time, I swear if he’s late I’ll…”

From his place among the statues behind Nakamori-keibu, KID finally allowed a grin to spread across his face. He’d spent the last couple hours posed on a pedestal Jii-chan had added to the statue collection and stealthily flexing his limbs when his Taskforce wasn’t looking. Several of his Taskforce had started to eye him warily, and Nakamori-keibu belatedly turned to see what had their attention.

KID waved, “Keibu-san, surely you know by now I wouldn’t leave my audience waiting?” and cackled as he started his next trick.

Chapter Text

“I’m beginning to think you aren’t taking this job seriously.”

Offended, Snake growled into the phone, “You knew how long it would take to find Pandora when you hired me. I assure you, you’ll get your gem.”

“Then why is that damn thief who threatened to destroy it still alive?” the other retorted angrily.

“It’s not easy to corner him without witnesses; the bastard’s slippery.”

“Let me make myself clear: collateral damage isn’t an issue; publicity is only a problem if you leave evidence. I want him eradicated.”

A cruel grin stretched across Snake’s face as he replied, “Understood, Boss.”

Chapter Text

Sasaki shares a look of resignation with his fellow Taskforce officers. He knows they can all see that the museum’s current setup is completely untenable. (The pendant is part of an exhibit that opens tomorrow, and the display pedestal doesn’t even have a glass case over it!) Unfortunately, the owner of KID’s latest target is stubbornly resistant to any and all of Nakamori-keibu’s attempts to intimidate him into cooperation. At least Adviser Suzuki’s bizarre demands involve actual methods, instead of the absence of anything remotely functional as security. He can practically feel everyone silently urging Nakamori-keibu to ignore the owner.

Chapter Text

Agasa Hiroshi carefully examined his latest creation, determined to discover any potential problems before he attempted his first test. Shinichi-kun had asked him to devise a gadget that would be useable for defense without relying on ammunition. He had to admit, the shoes by themselves weren’t ideal—if he didn’t have something to kick, Shinichi-kun would need to be dangerously close to his opponent for the shoes to be effective. Hiroshi had already gone through a few abandoned prototypes as he decided that Shinichi-kun wouldn’t be able to carry them around without them being noticed, but this one seemed promising.

Chapter Text

"Is he really here?"

Saguru pinched the bridge of his nose as he heard the question from behind him.

"Most assuredly," he said, "If there was any doubt before, this certainly proves the thief is within the building."

He gestures tiredly at the painted wall in front of him, continuing, "Despite the size, that is an accurate rendition of KID's emblem."

The entire wall is filled with the neon purple caricature. Saguru is dreading discovering exactly how  the thief managed to paint it without anyone noticing. At least they still have a chance to find KID before the heist starts.

Chapter Text

Conan was juggling his soccer ball with a thoughtful frown on his face. His initial plan for the operation had been stymied by Haibara’s refusal to give him one of the temporary antidotes, and now he was trying to figure out if any parts of it were salvageable or if he needed to start over from scratch.

At the moment, the latter seemed more likely. It was frustrating to have to rework everything to account for the fact that he had the physical capabilities of a six-year-old, but Conan was determined to pull this off. He just needed an opportunity.

Chapter Text

Kaito grinned as he entered the dove-cote and his doves cooed at him, several of them flying over to perch on his head and shoulders.

“Hey, everyone,” he greeted, pausing to pet the doves perching on him before checking and refilling their feed and water. That done; he started cleaning the various perches and making sure none of them needed repairs.

Feeling a gentle tug on his hair, he commented, “Are you preening me, Shiro-chan?” The dove perched on his head cooed in agreement, and Kaito laughed as he felt her go back to tugging on locks of his hair.

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Getting the FBI to facilitate Conan’s ‘return to America’ was more difficult than he had initially expected, considering how easily Akai and Jodie had accepted following plans orchestrated by a first-grader. Not that they weren’t willing to help—Jodie had agreed before even hearing what he needed—but it had taken Conan actually taking an antidote in front of them to finally convince them that he was actually a shrunken teenager. That and it had taken at least an hour of debate afterwards to get them to stop planning to actually put him (as Shinichi) in witness protection as well.

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“Edogawa-kun,” Haibara informs sternly, “You need to disabuse those three of the idea that they’re invincible before they get killed.”

Conan winces and sighs, “You think I haven’t tried?”

“Try harder.”

“How?” Conan asks wearily, “It’s like they forget about the possibility they might be in danger the minute they think they found something to investigate.”

“In that case, perhaps you should start setting a better example for them,” Haibara retorts, “They might be more likely to remember if they see you follow your own advice.”

“Ouch,” Conan mutters. “I doubt it’ll work, but at this point anything’s worth trying.”

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Shinichi frowned at the room full of secret agents who had all apparently decided to object to one of the essential parts of his plan to finally take down the Black Organization. He wouldn’t have minded if they had chosen something else to argue about, but this? Honestly, he knew that the only person who had a chance to pull off this part of the plan was KID. But everyone in the room was telling him that it wouldn’t work—that KID was too capricious to rely on. Shinichi wondered why they thought he would suggest working with someone unreliable.

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Kid’s shoulders slumped in disappointment as the gem in his hand shone a gentle blue as he held it up to the moon. Tonight was yet another null heist—how many gems had he stolen, only to fail to find the one he searched for? Kid had lost count. On nights like tonight, he felt like the hundreds of undesired gemstones weighed on his cape as if he’d never be free to fly. Yet he refuses to give up, even if he has to spend his whole life searching in order to destroy a myth that should never have existed.

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“I will never understand why you insist on fraternizing with him.”

“Wh— Haibara!” Shinichi yelped as he turned to face her, “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

She raised an eyebrow at him, “Just because you were so focused on sneaking out you didn’t notice me doesn’t mean I was trying to be quiet.”

“I wasn’t—“

“Kudo-kun, it’s two in the morning, the only reason you would be leaving at this hour is because you knew we wouldn’t approve.”

Shinichi scowled at her, “I don’t care how suspicious you think he is, I know he’s a good person.”

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Saguru glared silently at the white glove sitting on his desk. He should've turned it in to forensics as soon as he’d picked it up. Yet there it was, mocking him with its mere presence. Saguru knew analyzing a DNA sample from the glove would give him incontrovertible evidence of KID’s identity. He would finally be able to prove that Kuroba was KID. And yet—the glove wouldn’t be in his possession if Kuroba hadn’t been struggling to save Nightmare’s life. If Kuroba would try to help a man who was willing to kill him…why had he become a thief?

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Shinichi blinked and frowned down at the food on the stove. He…didn’t think it was supposed to look like this? Glancing at the recipe he’d been trying to follow confirmed his assessment; the food was not supposed to look like some odd farrago of ingredients. The problem being he had no idea where he’d gone wrong and thus no idea how to fix it. …Maybe it needed to cook longer? Should he mix it more? Both?

When his attempts to fix his error only resulted in a more-charred mess, Shinichi gave up. He’d start over, and ask Ran to help.

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Kid grinned widely as he darted out of the room, chased by half the Taskforce. He could just hear the thundering footsteps over the sound of Nakamori-keibu’s stentorian bellowing. It seemed the good Inspector had not been fond of Kid’s decision to give his Taskforce a touch of color. He couldn’t say why—the rainbow paint looked much more cheerful than the usual bland uniforms. It was even washable! Not that there was any convenient source of water in the building for his Taskforce to clean themselves up with. Kid could only conclude that Nakamori-keibu was determined to be gloomy.

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“…Haibara?” Shinichi eyed the scientist warily. She’d been staring blankly at the test results, and he couldn’t tell if that meant he was fine or if he was about to drop dead from unexpected side-effects of the antidote.

“…The initial tests show you’re in unexpectedly sound condition, Kudo-kun,” she finally said, turning around just in time to see him slump in relief. She glared at him in warning, “However; that does not mean you’re free to recklessly run around putting stress on your body. I’ll need to monitor your health for at least a week to ensure nothing unexpected occurs.”

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Conan isn’t quite sure whether seeing the Detective Boys try to emulate Ran’s karate moves should make him proud or terrified. On the one hand—if they actually stick to it and learn how to protect themselves, that’s definitely a good thing. On the other—they might just decide that learning martial arts (despite being far from experts) makes them invincible…which, honestly, probably won’t land them in any more dangerous situations than they already get into. Conan is mostly hoping they stick with it long enough for their Sensei to teach them how to leave when a situation is dangerous.

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Several Taskforce officers crashed into each other as their target jinked to the left and darted between them, easily dodging their grasping hands.

Kid cackled in exhilaration as he continued to dash away from the pursuing police officers, setting off colorful explosions of paint as he went. By now, the officers were starting to look like they’d been through a paint war, every one of them splattered with varying degrees and colors of paint.

Despite the overabundance of paint in the room, the thief’s white suit remained pristine, even as Kid used the officers as springboards for his acrobatic maneuvers.

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Kid has envisaged finding Pandora countless times, but he never once thought it would be like this. The discovery is so unexpected that he can’t move, can barely breathe, staring at the jewel like it might suddenly stop glowing and prove that he’s finally completely lost it—

But it doesn’t. The cursed gem continues to glow a beautiful red, and Kid wonders how something so terrible can look so innocent. He doesn’t know if this gem truly has magical powers, but he’s long past caring: to him Pandora is forever tainted by the death dealt by those who sought it.

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Shinichi winces when he hears his parents’ voices out in the hall. He’s glad they wanted to be here to support him, but at the same time, he’s just gone through an excruciating growth spurt and he’s exhausted. He probably looks considerably worse than he feels because Haibara hasn’t let him even sit up without supervision since he regained consciousness after taking the antidote. Shinichi isn’t willing to admit that he doesn’t actually have the energy to get out of bed, but he’s definitely too drained to deal with his mother’s histrionic antics, especially when they’ll be aimed at him.

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If she had to choose one word to describe Gin, it would be callous. It’s true the man is a killer, but he’s so indifferent to the act of killing itself that he scarcely bothers to remember the faces of his victims. Gin is ruthless in taking out perceived threats to the Organization, but as long as the enemy is neutralized (without suspicion falling on the Organization), the man couldn’t care less how it happens. It’s what makes the man so terrifying: his ability to casually deal death as if lives mean less than nothing—because to Gin, they do.

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It only takes three seconds for Conan to realize that the derelict house in the middle of nowhere is actually a giant death trap, but that’s two seconds too late to stop Genta. He’s never been more grateful to a random adult than he is when a treasure hunter appears just in time to keep Genta from dying. Conan is seriously regretting even mentioning that there was a code, because to top it all off, this entire house was built by Samizu Kichiemon. Sadly, he’ll never convince the others to leave without finding the treasure. They’re definitely going to die.

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Kaito is so, so thankful for Jii-chan. Honestly, even if he had found out some other way about the whole ‘your father was an internationally wanted criminal and was murdered’ thing, Kaito never would have been able to do half as much as he has without Jii-chan. Not only is the man skilled in a variety of (if not illegal, highly suspect) ways, Jii-chan knows how to find anything. Kaito can give the man a list of the requisite supplies for a heist and somehow Jii-chan finds a way to get it all without raising suspicions anywhere. It’s practically magic.

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Conan had known that the Shounen Tanteidan deciding to cook something would end badly, but Haibara didn’t stop them, so he hadn’t bothered to try. They’d said they were trying to bake a cake, but he still has no idea how they managed to cause this catastrophe. Thankfully, the oven hadn’t been touched—he’d made sure to tell them that Agasa-hakase would be the one to put the cake in and they’d agreed to that much—but the entire kitchen has been transformed into some kind of disaster zone. There’s flour and eggs and batter everywhere—even on the ceiling!