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charlietheepicwriter7 · 4 years ago

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All’s Fair in Love and Larceny

Summary: All Kaito wanted was to get Hakuba off his back about the Phantom Thievery... and mess with his favorite detectives’ love lives. AO3 Link

@not-a-hope-in-hell ‘tis I, your secret santa. It’s not exactly what you wanted, but I think it’s pretty good. Happy Holidays~!

Also, @dcmksecretsanta

Shinichi blinked, staring at the white form perched outside his bedroom window. He blinked again. No, KID was still there. Sighing, he unlatched the lock and pulled the glass up. “What do you want?” he asked the thief.

“My darling princess—”

“Not a princess—”

“My darling prince—” KID snatched one of Shinichi’s limp hands and kissed the air above it—“Would you please giving me the honor of escorting you this lovely evening?”

“…KID, it’s two am.”

“Very astute of you, detective! Unfortunately, I am very well aware of the hour.” There were dark bags under KID’s eyes, Shinichi noticed, previously mistaking them to be part of the shadow from his hat. “Alas, I have neither the time nor patience to visit you at a more respectable hour.” His voice dropped. “Please, Tantei-kun. I’m desperate.”

Alarm rose in Shinichi. KID wasn’t one to ask for help; even now, years after his return to the spotlight, there was only one suspected assistant to the criminal magician. Hakuba, Shinichi’s… friend and fellow Kaitou KID chaser, had even confided in him about a suspected dark organization trying to kill KID. A pit opened up in Shinichi’s stomach. If it was a branch of the Black Organization that he had failed to capture…

Shinichi opened the window more and stepped away. “Well? Get in.”

KID rushed inside, uncharacteristically tripping on his cape as he did. It seemed as thought whatever was bothering him was truly upsetting to the thief. He quickly straightened, brushing off his suit as if it had never happened. “Thank you kindly, Tantei-kun.”

Shinichi shut the window behind him and closed the blinds. “What’s wrong? Are you in danger?”

“The only thing in danger, Tantei-kun, is my dignity.” KID sighed. “A mutual acquaintance of ours, one Hakuba Saguru, has decided to make himself a menace. So, I’m calling in that favor you owe me.”

Shinichi’s heart skipped a beat. Hakuba… it was rare that Shinichi could work a case with the strict foreign detective, but he enjoyed their time together. Hakuba was brilliant, with an excellent taste in literature, and apparently, a big enough threat to KID that the thief would use the one favor he gained helping Shinichi with the Black Organization. He swallowed. He couldn’t exactly say no, not after KID had helped him so much. “And what, exactly do you want me to do?”

KID grinned, but to Shinichi, it was nearly a leer. “I need you to come with me. Once we arrive at our destination, I’ll tell you.” He clearly could see Shinichi’s discomfort, so he added. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing illegal. But your pride… might not survive.”

Shinichi gulped.

***

Saguru glared. Kuroba, two rows to his left and a seat ahead, didn’t notice. Or he pretended not to notice in order to get Saguru off guard. Saguru in the perfect position to watch his prey, yet frustration rose in him. Despite over a year of surveillance, he was no closer to definitively proving that Kuroba Kaito was the Kaitou KID, a fact that irked him most severely. It had even gotten to the point where Saguru had managed to arrange for a police officer to dodge Kuroba’s every move to no avail. Though if Saguru’s suspicions were correct, the likely thief certainly had other methods of leaving his house, but he didn’t have a warrant to search the residency yet.

It didn’t help his mood that morning that Kudo Shinichi was once again reported missing.

Saguru thumbed through the missing person’s report on his phone in between classes. Kudo was reported missing by his neighbor’s ward, Haibara Ai, a child he distantly remembered being a friend of young Edogawa Conan before he moved to America. There was no sign of forced entry, usually indicating that Kudo had left his residence himself, but none of his clothes were missing, his phone and keys on his bedside table.

A conundrum. A very worrisome one at that. Saguru still remembered what happened last time Kudo mysteriously disappeared.

He hoped it wasn’t his fault. Saguru enjoyed Kudo’s company, to a degree that would likely be thought as inappropriate if voiced aloud, and he didn’t want his fellow detective hurt. Especially if it was his fault. Kudo had already been forced to track down one villainous organization, and Saguru had been the one to inform him of the people trying to kill Kaitou KID. Kudo could very well be trying to apprehend them at that very moment, and there was no telling how injured he might become.

His phone vibrated once. An unknown number had sent him a message. A scam? No, it was a picture, though his particular texting app required he download each image before they appeared. Impatiently, he clicked it. Did another fangirl get ahold of his number…!

Saguru nearly broke his phone. There, on the screen, was a photo of Kudo, still in his night clothes, tied to a chair and gagged. A white arm was wrapped around his neck, connected to a white thief, holding his head up for the camera. There was early signs of bruising on Kudo’s cheekbone, and a dazed look in his eye that screamed concussion.

His eyes flicked to Kuroba. He didn’t have his phone out; timed messages from a burner then? Before he could confront his classmate, another message came, just text this time.

Did you wake up to something missing, Tantei-san?

Nearly shaking with anger, Saguru typed his response.

This is a new low, even for you Kuroba.

The reply was instant.

Kuroba? Do you still think I’m your classmate? Besides, I wouldn’t call this a “new low”. More like… a different branch of my current low.

Saguru paled, barely paying attention to the teacher entering the room. That was no stock reply, it couldn’t have been a timed message. And Kuroba’s hands were visible.

He couldn’t be wrong, could he?

To make sure, he sent another message.

You’re not going to get away with this. Return Kudo now.

Or what? You’ll take “drastic” measures? I’m terrified, Tantei-san.

Another photo. This time, Kudo was clearly in KID’s arms, restrained with an arm across his chest. One of KID’s hands was secure around Kudo’s throat, while the other was dipping into his shirt.

His phone cracked under the sudden pressure of his grip. His eyes flickered to Kuroba who still was, maddeningly, not doing anything.

Why are you doing this?

Why? Tantei-san, you didn’t think that you were the only one interested in our favorite detective, were you?

Is this merely an attempt to incite me? You figured out my feelings and decided to mock me for them?

The confession made Saguru feel nauseous. Because he did like Kudo, romantically although he would never speak aloud about it. There was no evidence that the other detective thought of him as more than a friend and Saguru was… well, he wasn’t happy about it, but he could be content.

But how did Kuroba—KID—realize the extent of his feelings?

Mock? Tell me, Tantei-san, is there anything to mock?

I don’t know how you discovered the extent of my feelings for Kudo-kun, but I promise you, you will regret this, Kaitou KID. Kudo means more to me than you’ll ever know, and if there’s one bruise on his body, you’ve stolen your last jewel.

There was a pause in the writing, and Saguru took the moment to try to calm down, when—

Then I advise you announce your feelings soon, Tantei-san. Otherwise, I might decide to keep him.

The third photo, Kudo being forced to sit on KID’s lap, his sleep-shirt unbuttoned, lecherous grin on KID’s face, one of the thief’s hands reaching for—

He slammed his phone down on the table, the screen cracking.

“KUROBA!!”

“Hakuba-san, sit down!”

***

Kaito hummed merrily as he unlocked the entrance to his KID-cave, the threat to his secret identity now safely defeated. Sure, he nearly got choked out by Hakuba, but the teacher had put a stop to that, giving the detective detention too. And with that detention, Kaito was sure the Brit’s father would no longer allow Hakuba access to his manpower, since it was only because he thought Hakuba “mature” that he had the officers to stalk him everywhere.

Finally, he could relax—

“Are you going to unchain me?”

“Tantei-kun!” Kaito smiled brightly at the detective he had chained in his basement. Kudo was easily able to get up from his armchair and move around—the chain connecting his leg to the chair long enough so he could get to the bathroom and minifridge—but unable to escape. Kaito was a considerate kidnapper after all, especially since he had to sneak Kudo in through the sewer entrance to avoid the police outside.

At Kudo’s side was the cell phone used to aggravate Hakuba. Kaito had gotten a glance at Kudo’s work after pickpocketing Hakuba and it was good. At least, it sounded close enough to KID and worked Hakuba up into pseudo-confessing, so score.

Kaito bowed. “Thank you very much for your assistance in today’s trick. You made a beautiful assistant!”

“So long as you delete those photos, I don’t care what kind of assistant I was.” He tossed the phone at Kaito. He caught it with one hand. “When you asked for my help, I thought it would be for something more serious.”

“This was serious!” Meddling in the love lives of his favorite detectives was extremely serious! With how emotionally repressed the two were, they’d never end up confessing. Speaking of which, Kaito leered at Kudo. “So, did you realize why you were so effective in enraging Tantei-san?”

Kudo looked away, face stoic but there was a light flush on his cheeks. “…I did.”

Kaito smiled, satisfied. “Then my task is complete. Just make sure to name one of the adopted babies after me~!”

The comment was totally worth the soccer ball to the face.

#dcmksecretsanta #@not-a-hope-in-hell #sagushin #dcmk #shinichi kudo #Saguru Hakuba #kaito kuroba #kaitou kid #hakushin #pseudo kaishin

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lisatelramor · 5 years ago

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Be a Better Me

Hi, I’m back with angst fic. >_>

So with COVID19 going on I 1) had more time to write + 2) have had a bit more background anxiety with the world, and stress + time = angstfic for me most of the time. So this got written in about a month. Instead of any of my WIPs =_=;;;;; Hope other people are up for some angst. Either way I'm being sent back to work next week so I'm glad it chose to finish when it did.

This was 100% inspired by @ickaimp's Robo!Kaito fic and has probably low key kicked around my brain for years since I read it back in like 2011.

Chapter 1

His arm aches. Kaito flexes his hand, blood running down from the bullet graze that feels like fire. The robot that impersonated him is wires and synthetic skin smoking in a pile. He feels sick in his stomach, both from almost dying after a few days trapped in a lab and because he’d just seen something that had run around with his face blow its own head off.

It’s just a robot, but it’d thought it was human. It’d thought it was him, had seen his memories, just hadn’t quite been human enough to understand life, death, or morals. What kind of sick fuck made something like that?

Kaito shudders. His hand flexes again. Bandages. He needs bandages, and maybe stitches, or maybe to just. Go lie down.

His skin doesn’t feel quite right but that’s the shock probably. A lot’s happened in a couple days’ time. Like finding out someone with his face killed someone. A creepy scientist who also kidnapped Kaito, but yeah. How anything that had Kaito’s memories and personality could do that… He shudders again.

Kaito isn’t a megalomaniac in disguise right? He has lines and morals and things he’d never do in a million years, even if some of his morals are grayer than others. He doesn’t hurt people. Not physically permanent. And not any other way if he can help it.

Blood drips from his fingertips.

There’s a laboratory burning down with a corpse of a man who tried to make a man from metal out there and Kaito doesn’t want anything more to do with it.

He turns away. He has a gem to return and a budding reputation to save.

o*O*o

He feels weird for a while after that. It’s the trauma probably. Kaito can’t say his life has ever been normal. His father was a stage magician, both his parents turned out to be thieves, and he puts on a white suit to stir up shadows to try and find out why his father was murdered. That’s hardly the sort of thing a teenager usually goes through, but killer robots and kidnapping were new. His balance a bit off for a day? He spent two days strapped to a table. His arm took a bit to work right? He did get grazed by a bullet. Swimming takes a bit more effort than the last time he did it? Not weird since he generally avoids swimming in the ocean if he can. Aoko’s mop swings seem a little slower? He’s kind of hyper aware of attacks lately, so he’s just paying more attention.

Things are different but not that different so it’s just his head being weird about it all. Life goes on, he stops feeling a bit off and he keeps on going as usual. Bait Aoko, play like a good student, perform magic, and pull of the next heist. Simple.

But then there’s suddenly a magic wielding witch and a detective trying to sniff him out, and life just keeps getting weirder. He doesn’t remember it being this strange before he became Kid, but it must have been at least a little weird. It’s just that practicing magic and acrobatics with Aoko and actual magic and jumping off buildings are very different things. It’s a miracle he’s managed not to break anything. What with the roller coaster, or jumping off buildings, or getting shot at, or ghost(?) pirates, or being attacked by a hoard of hairy rats… Yeah. Life is weird.

So if Kaito’s a little weird in it, well, he fits right in, now doesn’t he?

o*O*o

Kaito’s chest is aching and there’s a nasty bruise forming. He supposes that’s what happens when a gem blocks a bullet. It’s yet another miracle the sapphire didn’t shatter let alone that the bullet hit it instead of him at all. Aoko liked her birthday gift but it had taken all Kaito had to set that up for her and he’s dead on his feet now.

He might have a cracked rib too. He winces, easing off the costume. It has a hole—two really where the bullet deflected—that will need patched and the usual bleach treatments to keep it white. White is the worst color for climbing around rooftops and crawlspaces. He’d change it if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s one of Kid’s signature identifiers at this point. Thanks, Oyaji.

The bruise is worse than he first thought when he gets his shirt off. Mottled purple all along the left side of his chest. Like someone took a wooden mallet to him.

Thankfully there’s an x-ray machine down in Kid’s hideaway. It’s old and definitely not something he’s going to ever use much because, well, radiation, but he’d rather know if he’s managed to break a rib or not so he knows how much acrobatics he can get away with.

It takes a bit to set up and a bit longer to figure out how to get everything to work, but fifteen minutes later he’s got x-ray film developing in a little darkroom off to the side because apparently his dad had a little bit of everything thought out down here. He loves and hates it in equal measures sometimes.

He sighs, feeling the deep breathing ache, and looks at the forming image. And frowns.

He’s not a medical expert, far from it, but he has a general run down of the human body and has seen x-rays before. What Kaito’s looking at? Not what he’d expect to see. There’s ribs, yes, but they’re not quite right, and too dark. Then there’s all the metal. It’s like his nervous system is registering as wires, radiating out like something from one of his textbooks, same with the circulatory system that’s a bit too dark on the film. Should he even be seeing that? Heart, maybe, but branching signs of the rest of his veins and arteries? His lungs aren’t the right shape. The vague shadows of organs aren’t right either. And there’s… there’s the shadow of screws and pins and mechanical bits that shouldn’t be there. There’s wires instead of tendons that shouldn’t be showing and he has to stare.

His chest throbs and he looks down at it. Bruising. At the film. Barely resembling something human. He hurts. Aches. Yet there in front of him is mechanical parts.

Feeling like he’s floating, or maybe sinking, Kaito plucks one of his razor cards from its deck. He slides it along his finger. Skin parts, blood wells up, pain registers dimly.

But is it blood?

It drips, just a few drops, already clotting as he stares. It’s red as any blood he’s seen. The pain is real. And yet. He looks at the film.

Kaito hasn’t thought about the robot in months. Why would he? It’s over and done. He’d read a police report about the lab in the paper. About the body found and the equipment sitting in police evidence for ages as the murder case went cold. They didn’t know to look for a robot. And the robot had been left for scrap. Kaito doesn’t know what had happened to its remains.

There hadn’t been a second body found.

He looks back at his hand and finds it shaking.

The robot’s face had peeled off, but when he tugs at his cheek he just feels pain. Same with his hair. He feels. He eats and shits and sleeps and bleeds. His breath is coming too fast and it hurts.

It’s a mistake, right? He could take another scan and it’d be normal. Human. He could scan his hand and it would be bone and tendons and the ghost of muscle, not wire and metal joints that would make a prosthetic expert weep. Not too-dark veins and tendrils of nerves that shouldn’t be visible.

His lungs were the wrong shape, he couldn’t breathe.

“Shit.”

He’s Kaito, right? Just a normal teenager with an abnormal life. Just a normal, human teenager.

The robot thought it was human.

The robot thought it was Kaito.

Kaito doesn’t remember being taken, he just remembers waking up strapped down. But the robot barely passed as human. But Kaito has wires in his chest.

He looks at the film again. “Well. No cracked rib.” He laughs. It’s not funny at all. He can’t breathe. “What do I do?”

The empty basement hideaway his father left him has no answers at all.

Like usual, it’s just Kaito facing crisis alone.

He’s never felt worse.

o*O*o

Eventually, he picks himself off the floor. Eventually he changes into new clothes. Eventually he slides into bed and sleeps, terribly, but sleeps. He sees his face melting in his dreams, a broken metallic skull leaking fluid and smoke and blank mechanical eyes staring at him. His skin peeling away to show metal bones and wires as everyone he loves stares in horror.

Kaito wakes up feeling like he’s going to throw up, in a cold sweat. He can dream and sweat and feel sickening terror, surely he’s wrong. Surely.

But the x-ray is the same damning image this morning as it was last night.

Kaito’s hands start shaking again.

If he goes into class, Hakuba will take one look at him and know something’s up. Hell, Aoko will notice. He laces his fingers together. Poker face. Poker face. Whatever is going on, he’s still been Kaito for months without noticing anything wrong so. So maybe he’s… a cyborg or something. A robot wouldn’t be having a panic attack about being a robot. Who would want to make a robot capable of having a panic attack in the first place?

He doesn’t know what the hell is going on, but he needs answers before he can do anything else.

Kaito calls in sick, leaves Aoko a message so she doesn’t show up demanding he get ready for school. Eats plain toast without tasting it—how can he taste it?—and slides on his shoes. His chest is a mass of dark bruises just like a human body that had a bullet deflected should be. But nothing under his skin is apparently human.

It’s easy to slip into the police record room with a borrowed face, and a matter of minutes to seek out the mad doctor’s case record. His charred remains are photographed in gristly glory front and center, but his cause of death isn’t fire. Kaito knows his hands don’t have the sort of strength to do what that file describes.

He almost throws up looking at it.

There’s lab equipment listed off, melted computers and bits of paper files to survive the destruction kept in evidence files. Kaito might need to come back and see what he can salvage from them. If he’s… not fully human, he might need some of the doctor’s research no matter how much the thought makes his skin crawl. There’s nothing in the file about the robot, but there is notes about unfinished pieces parts sifted from the wreckage. Police notes only speculate what they thought was going on in the labs.

The file doesn’t mention another body.

Kaito does a quick look into active unidentified male bodies found in the last few months, but none of them are young enough to be him. None of them recognizable. It should be a good thing.

It should be.

Instead it has Kaito’s breathing tight again because what if he died and no one ever found the body? What if he rots somewhere and no one will ever know he’s not. That’s Kaito’s not.

He leaves the police station.

There’s a disconnect between his self and emotions and it’s something he’s done before, but rarely outside of a heist. His poker face, most of the time, is an act. This is different. This is shutting bits of himself away because otherwise he couldn’t function. This is putting off a breakdown knowing it’ll be that much worse later. This is shutting a door knowing it’s going to open later and drown him.

He heads for the lab. It’s the only place he can think to go.

o*O*o

The building is condemned. It’s a burnt husk of a thing and a surprise that it hasn’t been torn down yet. Perhaps the doctor had owned it and it’s in the air what to do with it. Either way, Kaito approaches with detached caution.

He can remember leaving here in a rush, the explosion that followed not long after he made it out. He can remember the sickening glimpse of a body on his way out, trying not to look too hard and knowing it’d haunt his nightmares. Kaito steps inside and pinpoints the twisted metal that was once where he was strapped down, the shattered remains of the memory transfer machines still imbedded into the wall behind it.

The police had removed a lot of things, but they couldn’t remove the scorch marks on the walls and floor or the dark bloodstains in the corner. He shivers.

What is he doing here? The scene was gone over by police. It’s not like he’s going to find something they didn’t, and it’s not like he’s going to know what any of the machine bits left can do beyond the memory transfer one.

It’s damp and drafty inside. It smells like wet ashes and chemicals and he wants to turn around and leave, especially when he sees a metal start of a skeleton still bolted to the back wall. How many had this guy made? How many robot failures before the one that Kaito fought? How many thought they were human? How many other people were kidnapped in the process of building these things?

Things. Robots were things. And Kaito was…

The wall had collapsed along one side, and no one had bothered to clear the rubble. If Kaito was a crazy robot building scientist that kidnapped teenagers, what would he do with them? Ok, he’d been strapped down to the memory machine. But if he built a robot and implanted memories in it, he’d want to compare, right? He’d want to prove that he’d done the transfer right, so he wouldn’t just get rid of the teenager. The robot Kaito faced had transferred memories fine, but the emotional and moral processes hadn’t been right. The doctor had been basing it off Kaito and if Kaito was. If he was then that meant the transfer had worked right on Kaito. Probably. And maybe the scientist had been trying to duplicate whatever happened with Kaito or maybe they’d been two different models for different purposes. Who the hell knew at this point? Certainly not Kaito.

Kaito prods at rubble. If there’s one thing he’s learned about people who have secrets to hide, things aren’t as they appear. This is a lab, but it’s missing living space. It’s missing storage and a metal foundry. The pieces that built the robots are too specialized to not be custom made. The cabinets that had existed had to have been full of wires and polymers and the fine details bits that you’d want a nice open workspace to better work with, but there had to be a place the doctor had done the base work and he’s not seeing any sign of it here. Just the start of the skeleton on the wall that’s missing its head and lower half.

He can’t look at it. It’s somewhere in between the scan Kaito took of his chest and the metal chassis from the robot he fought, its skin peeling back and—

There had to be a basement. Still is a basement probably. But the door is either hidden or buried, and Kaito’s not sure what to do first. Test the shattered remains of cabinet bases? Try scrounging through rubble? See if anything still hooked into the wall shifts and shows a hidden room like his painting at home?

The basement wouldn’t have been legally added or the police would have its existence on file for the building blueprints. But most of this place can’t have been legally built. Not with the amount of equipment secreted away. People would have asked questions. So. Hidden door.

Kaito estimates wall thicknesses versus the interior versus how dangerous it is to get close to places where the ceiling and walls are still crumbling bit by bit.

There’s a cabinet with shattered glass cases and medical supplies that have all been taken away as evidence. Kaito vaguely remembers it before the explosion. Despite half a roof caving in around it, it’s still in one piece structurally and that means it’s built stronger than a cabinet should be.

It takes twenty minutes of careful prodding and digging and tugging to get it to budge and when it does it shrieks like rusted hinges. But Kaito keeps pulling and gets a space big enough for him to crawl through, stairs traveling down.

It’s dark and even mustier than above. The floor must have cracked or the foundations, and it’s growing mold, but Kaito’s surprised to find it isn’t completely dark. Somehow there’s still power running here, probably underground. The overhead lights are shattered but in the gloom are a few red blinking lights of appliances.

Kaito wants to turn back but he’s never been one to shy away from the truth.

Glass crunches under his shoes as his small pocket flashlight illuminates fragments of the dark. A table. A kitchen. A bed, all in the first room, but heavy metal doors beyond. They’re warped though, and the ceiling sags ominously where a support beam crumpled slightly from the explosion above. Kaito has no idea how it didn’t get destroyed with the rest of the place, but it had to have been the placement of explosives.

He creeps further, leaving the eerily normal living area for one of the metal doors. It’s stuck, but he gets it to move enough to squeeze past, his ribs protesting the movement. It’s fine. It’s not important. The room is the metal foundry he’d expected, casts and tools and carefully disguised air vents branching off. It’s heavily reinforced, probably also muffled so the metalwork didn’t make too much noise. He sees finished metal bones, all sorted neatly into labeled bins and racks of molds. There’s a half-finished skull just sitting there on a work bench, empty eye sockets unnerving.

Kaito wrenching his eyes away from it. There’s papers and diagrams, documents on the doctor’s research about how the robotic body comes together, about alloys and density and weights that Kaito should keep if it ever becomes something he needs—He drops the thought into that emotional void growing in his head.

If he needs anything from here, he will take it. And will not think about what it means.

The documents about the muscular, nervous, circulatory and digestive systems aren’t here. Might not even exist anymore. But there had been a personal computer in the living space and it had glass littering it like the floor, but it wasn’t destroyed. It was one of the blinking red lights, so maybe…

Kaito’s taking that when he leaves.

The other metal door is warped worse than the foundry. Kaito has to go and get a metal femur to lever the gap wide enough to pass through and he’s surprised to find the inside almost fully intact.

One light flickers on, the only bulb not destroyed. He’s not sure at first what the room is. There’s a filing cabinet by the door, sure, but also a chest freezer and something that looks like an opaque glass case except there are wires running to it and an electric hum that’s louder than the freezer. Something in his instincts prickle and Kaito can’t explain the heavy terrified feeling bubbling in his gut the longer he stares at the simple room in the dim, flicker light.

Glass crunches and he tugs the freezer lid up. He’s half expecting to find a dismembered corpse in there. There’s not a corpse but there is vial after vial of dark liquids with strings of numbers on them and containers labeled ‘skin’ with numbers after them. The liquid looks a lot like blood. Kaito’s stomach lurches. The other containers are opaque and thankfully impossible to tell the contents of, though they could be organs, real or synthetic. Kaito really hopes the skin is synthetic.

He lets the lid close and tugs the file cabinet drawers. Locked, but he can easily get in them later. That leaves the glass case.

It has a computerized box attached to the front with strings of numbers displayed that mean absolutely nothing to Kaito. There’s controls too, but the only one he cares about is the one that opens the glass case. It unlocks with a pneumatic hiss, like its contents were under pressure and Kaito swings the glass up.

And stares down at his face.

Peaceful. Like it’s asleep. He’s asleep. But his lips are bluish and his skin is pale and, when Kaito reaches out with a shaking hand, he’s cold to the touch.

The police never found a second body.

The room goes a little sideways and dark and Kaito realizes only after his face is mashed against the metal edge of the glass case that he’s hyperventilating.

“Shit,” he hisses through chattering teeth. “Shit.” His hair’s standing on end and his whole body is shaking and he’s having a panic attack next to his own corpse. “Shit.” It shouldn’t be possible to have a panic attack when he isn’t even real.

The room keeps spinning and blinking bright and dark as he tries to control his breathing. Shit, how can he hyperventilate when he doesn’t have real lungs and maybe not even a real brain—unless. He pops back up like a man drowning and scrabbles for the case.

He tilts Kai—the body’s head one way or another, but there’s no sign of it being cut open. The hair’s the same wiry texture he feels when he touches his head and there’s no injury he can feel. The knobs of its spine along the neck are intact. There’s wires, now that he’s looking, glued at the temples, but they’re not going in the body. There’s wires other places too and he has a stupid, fleeting moment of gratitude that at least the sick fuck that did this left Kaito’s underwear on. The body’s. Shit. There’s no marks and no indication of what happened, but the body isn’t breathing and there’s no pulse at its throat and it’s Kaito’s body right there.

It’s him but it’s not because Kaito isn’t.

He has to let go of the body and take three steps away to empty the meager contents of his stomach on the glass-littered floor. Stomach bile burns his throat. Is it even stomach acid? Is it even—how is he digesting if he’s wires and not-quite-organs? What is he?

He’s crying and hiccupping and he can’t quite seem to stop, the sour taste in his mouth and the smell of mold in his nose. What was the point in making a robot so close to human it can’t tell the difference between flesh and machine? What’s the point of a machine that can cry and vomit and panic like a real person? What’s the point of killing a teenager to replace him with a machine?

He crouches for an unknown period of time until the panic sort of flat lines and his tears dry. His hands stop shaking and his throat is raw, each breath a rasp. He bleeds and feels pain and emotions and—

Kaito goes back to the body. His body. Say the memory transfer worked. Say that Kaito in his entirety went from human flesh and bone to this. Intact. Say that the process fried Kaito’s brain and the doctor was left with a comatose teenager and a robot that didn’t know it was a robot. What would the doctor do with his mistake? Was the case to preserve the corpse? To keep the body as reference or had there been another purpose?

Or maybe the process hadn’t fried Kaito’s brain. Maybe the real Kaito had looked at his double. At the other Kaito and tried to break free. Maybe he’d been sedated or something else went wrong. But maybe that Kaito had died in terror and left an imposter in his place.

Kaito will never know.

There is no sign of decomposition. No sign of the body going through rigor mortis or any kind of trauma. Like he’s just sleeping. Like a few tiny stimuli could open the hidden blue eyes and the body would rise up and express how frigging cold it is in the case.

Maybe, for a scientist playing god, that had been the intent. Make a man from scratch achieved, next step bring back the dead. The first person to successfully revive a cryo patient.

Kaito closes his eyes, then closes the glass case. He can’t look at his own body anymore. He can’t. It seals with another hiss, preserving the body for however long the machine keeps running.

What the hell is he supposed to do?

He presses the heels of his hands against his swollen eyes. It’s not right to leave this here. It’s not right for any of this to be left here. It’s not right for Kaito to take the place of the real Kaito either but he doesn’t know what the hell to do. He’s been taking his place for months now; what else is there for him?

Is it better or worse if he is, in fact, a complete imprint of Kaito’s brain? Would he even know the difference if something is missing?

Worst of all, no one noticed. Not Aoko. Not Kaito or Jii. Not Kaito’s own mother. No one.

Kaito died alone. And no one noticed.

He’s crying again, not sure if it’s for himself or for the body at his back. Months. Months.

The overhead light flickers out and all at once Kaito can’t stay here. It’s like he’s the one in the box, trapped and slowly running out of air, and he squeezes out the door and up the stairs before he can even process moving. He doesn’t stop until he’s up a tree and breathing smoke and mold free air and trying to stop trembling. ‘What now?’ his mind asks. ‘What now, what now, what now?’

It’s night when he finally moves. He doesn’t know how long he sat up a tree, can’t remember the sun going down, only knowing that his body aches everywhere from stillness and unforgiving solid tree limbs beneath his ass. He makes a call. “Jii?”

He doesn’t know what his voice sounds like, couldn’t pick up his poker face if he tried right now.

It must be horrible though because Jii’s voice comes through the line sharp and worried. “What’s happened?” he asks.

There’s no way to start, no words to draw on to explain the mess that this is. How does someone say that they’re dead? That they’re dead and not, human and not, all at the same time?

“Kaito-bocchama?” Jii says sharper.

“How good,” Kaito says, voice gone all wobbly and out of control, “is that friend of yours with robotics?”

“…Kaito-bocchama?” Jii says a lot more dubiously.

Kaito licks his lips with a dry tongue. Dry mouth. Probably dehydrated and doesn’t that make no sense for a robot to have that feature. “There’s a problem. And I don’t know what to do,” he admits.

He can’t say it. How can he say to Jii that Kaito’s dead, like Toichi is dead, to Kaito’s mom that he’s dead and there’s just this remnant body of wires and meat-mimicking mess wearing his face left? How can he do that?

“Where are you?” Jii says, the sound of him getting clothing, maybe or a coat in the background.

Kaito hesitates, but gives the address of the burned down lab. “How good is your friend with robotics?” he asks again.

“…It isn’t his specialty,” Jii says after a long moment.

“Ah.” Too much to hope for. Still, maybe this mysterious friend Jii gets the occasional gadget from will know how to read the research notes better than Kaito would. Keys jingle as Jii locks his front door. “Jii?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry, in advance,” Kaito says knowing it’s not enough. He hangs up before Jii can say anything in response and doesn’t pick up the return call. Instead he stuffs his phone in a pocket and covers his face with his hands and just breathes. If nothing else makes sense, at least he can do that.

#magic kaito #detective conan #robot kaito #fanfiction #my writing #not really shippy this time guys #but there's a lot of skirting the lines later #and much friendship #you know #between the angst moments

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squidpro-quo · 5 years ago

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Life/Death Swap

AN: Little late for @sup-poki and @mintchocolateleaves‘s emogust, but I’ll catch up :P I love houseki no kuni, with all its shiny sadness so i can’t resist an au

Shinichi stares down at the shattered pieces in his hand, his own left thumb missing and his neck on the verge of breaking. But it’s his heart that hurts, though he doubts the Master had made them a specific organ for that, but his metaphorical heart hurts regardless. He should’ve been faster, stronger, more unbreakable because when it came down to the line, he was the one that should’ve taken the blow, it was his job after all.

Kaito’s job had been to do his tricks. To look for the right material, the purest of diamond or the hardiest of amethyst and mind the cracks and watch for the chips and scuffs that might bloom into faults. Shinichi had heard of a mother’s supposed duties, the nurturing and apparent materials that went into creating a human and Kaito wasn’t quite that, more a little brother’s antics than anything approaching motherly, but he did the same job. Creating new gems, making them ready to be infused with life and open their eyes onto a new existence free from the earth. Even now, Kaito’s bag was full of his usual chisels and picks, spilling onto the softly waving grass and left behind as Shinichi picked up the shards, hands full of the largest glittering pieces and pocketing the tiniest lest they be lost.

He settles Kaito’s legs on top of his chest, refusing to look at the crater gaping under the torn white shirt and wishing it didn’t sparkle such a beautiful blue inside. It shouldn’t be dazzling, that color should be confined to Kaito’s eyes and hair, a mess that now lies still as Shinichi stands up. Kaito’s parts click together, the sound becoming worse as Shinichi starts to run towards their home, sword left behind as unnecessary weight and his eyes stinging with what must be the wind and nothing else.

He steals a look down at Kaito just as his right eye blinks open, the left one stays an empty hole.

“ —nichi, did they get you too?” Kaito forces through cracked lips, the movement only forcing them to chip further in small flakes of blue.

“No,” Shinichi mutters, wishing they had. “It was only you.”

“Ah, I was wondering…” Kaito falls silent, his remaining fractured eye looking like a starburst had become embedded in it, right along with the lunarians’ cursed arrows.

“What?”

“When did you stop hating me?” Kaito’s voice is soft, the whisper barely making it out and Shinichi only hears him by chance, but the words make his thoughts stutter. That was so long ago, so much time lost, and Shinichi doesn’t want to bear the thought that it might not be the Kaito he knows now any longer.

“Stop talking, you’re only going to lose more of yourself,” is all he manages to say.

Shinichi doesn’t stop until they’ve made it back, unloading Kaito onto the examining table while Akako emerges from her storage room with a heavy sigh at the sight of the damage.

“Did he leave his expected route again?” she asks, setting down her armful of dusting chalk and taking up one of Kaito’s instead to examine the break.

“He said he saw a promising piece of topaz, best he’d ever found…” Shinichi curses his past negligence, that he’d given in to Kaito’s excited grin and goofy looking jeweler’s loupe stuck to the bridge of his nose. He’d known the coast was dangerous, the thought of how infrequent the attacks had been recently had passed through his mind and he’d dismissed it, like an idiot. Kaito was liable to shatter from falling down the stairs, the barrage of arrows had reduced him to little more than dust in the areas where he’d been hit.

“Always running off after the biggest, shiniest stone,” Akako chides, lining up a few limbs and piecing Kaito’s legs back together.

“ — should’ve seen it, Akako,” Kaito says, an old gleam refracted in his eye as he looks at her. “Hakuba would’ve been jealous of that luster.”

“You’ll have to show him once you’re in one piece again.”

Shinichi hovers in the back, watching Akako work, relieved to see Kaito’s legs and arms reforming but leaving his chest still in smithereens, along with his face.

“What to do about this eye…” Akako pulls out a few drawers, searching through her supplies before finally sitting back with a frown on her face. “There’s nothing here to replace it. He never brought me a piece of his own gem.”

She fiddles with Kaito’s jeweler’s tools, her expression uncharacteristically melancholy. Until she surges back into action and bends over Kaito’s head with a small hammer and begins her work in earnest again.

Shinichi’s glad she’s found something to do for the eye but the chasm in the middle is still his main concern. Like she’d said, Kaito brought back samples of them all, but not himself. It was too rare a specimen for him to find and now he would never be whole again. The one who’d helped carve them, had been carved up himself, left to be incomplete.

“There,” Akako declares, standing back with her hands settled on her hips. “On to your chest.”

Shinichi steps up and sees Kaito’s face, one eye restored and closed while the other’s crystal blue has been somehow diluted, shards of clear white interspersed throughout and he realizes what Akako did. Kaito’s jeweler’s loupe is no longer in his bag, it sits in front of his face as it always did but now as a part of it instead. The white rim is set into his cheekbone, melded to fit around his eye and Shinichi wonders what Kaito will say when he wakes with a permanent monocle. Likely laugh and tip an imaginary hat, say that it’ll save him having to put on and remove it every time but Shinichi will miss the way it always slipped when Kaito got started on an animated explanation of his latest project.

He turns to see Akako excavating Kaito’s chest and shaking her head when she catches his eye.

“He’s not going to get up with this much lost, it’s a miracle he even remembers you.” Akako’s gloves are tinted with Kaito’s blue dust and Shinichi doesn’t want to correct her, thinking the way Kaito had barely spared him more than a confused glance throughout the entire rebuilding. What Kaito remembers isn’t who Shinichi is any more.

“I can give him part of my core.” He starts to pull up his shirt, shooting down Akako’s startled start to a sentence. “I can just go in storage, he’s the one who finds the pieces of us anyway. Without him, we won’t have any more of us around. If he sees something made of me, then tell him…”

He can’t know when Kaito might find a piece to fill him again, it could be decades, centuries, and he might not care enough to do it anyway. But there’s a small part of Shinichi that doesn’t want to be around to see a Kaito who doesn’t remember how far they’ve come, back to the glares and anger.

Akako considers his logic and the reluctance is clear in her eyes when she nods, but also understanding. When she starts to cut into his chest, it doesn’t hurt, but he can feel the memories slipping away like sand, a few grains left behind the only indication he ever knew anything. He tries to hold onto what he can but he finds himself going blank in the middle of a thought once too often and his eyes slip closed, letting go before he can be cast off again.

Notes for this: I doubt that they can just trade material like that in hnk but I pictured something more akin to what happens with Padparadscha with being brought back

#DCMKEmogust2019 #dcmk #Kuroba Kaito #Kudou Shinichi #detective conan #My writing #there's a fanart i saw once of kaito with a sword and chipped leg showing blue and this is absolutely inspired by that #writing on absolutely shitty wifi so I guess i'm just hoping this goes through

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hanneswrites · 6 years ago

Text

am I just too tired to wink

Title: am I just too tired to wink

Pairings: Hakuba Saguru/Kuroba Kaito/Kudo Shinichi/Hattori Heiji || HakuKaiHeiShin

Rating: T

Word Count: 1k

Summary: Saguru, Heiji, and Shinichi are all working on a case that they just can't seem to solve. Kaito helps out by making them get some rest. Forgive the shitty title.

“’Sup losers?” Kaito nearly shouted, waking up Heiji and Shinichi, but barely startling Saguru, who was, as always, still awake, cold coffee in hand, looking only a bit disheveled.

“Gods, Kaito. Why the fuck are you like this?” Heiji rubbed his temples, but graciously grabbed the coffee and donut bag handed to him.

“Figured you guys might like some breakfast. It is 7am, you know.” Kaito replied, handing a cup of hot tea and a bag of bagels to Shinichi. He kissed Saguru, who was only a little out of it, despite having been awake for a record 58 hours straight, running on only coffee and adrenaline.

“I got you a blonde white lightning, as requested. And some yogurt for good measure.” Kaito smiled and placed the coffee in Saguru’s hands before putting the yogurt in the small mini-fridge next to him.

“Thank you, darling, you’re a godsend.” Saguru said, staring off at the back wall behind Kaito’s head. Maybe “not too out of it” was a bit of an understatement.

“I think you may need actual sleep instead of espresso. Is this case really that difficult?” The magician asked. There were case files strewn about and gruesome photo after gruesome photo tacked onto the corkboard in the corner.

“’S been pretty tough. No leads, even with Boy Wonder and RoboCop workin on it.” Heiji said, scarfing down 2 jelly donuts at once.

“M’ not boy-wonder…” Shinichi mumbled, turning toward the back of the couch that he was laying on. Snoring followed shortly after and that was one down—two to go.

Convincing Saguru to go to sleep was always difficult. Luring him onto something that resembled a flat, somewhat soft surface, was the hardest part. Now, where Saguru was smart, sleep-deprived Saguru was tricky . He would complicitly follow you to the bedroom and sit on the bed, smile, and nod, but not look directly at you. Always over your left shoulder. Sometimes Kaito wondered if sleep-deprived Saguru gained the ability to see another plane of existence, but it was more likely that his brain was too busy working on theories to control what he was looking at. Then, when you got him to lay back, and you thought he was on the verge of sleep, you would leave the room to collect the others and that’s when he would strike. Sometimes he would try to climb out the window, other times, if he was in a particularly petulant mood, he would blatantly follow you back into the living room. Heiji, on the other hand? Kaito was convinced that he had never witnessed a true portrait of gluttony until he'd seen Heiji existing on 2 hours of sleep, working dutifully on a case while scarfing down literally anything and everything within his reach.

Kaito sighed, cracked his knuckles, and took the White Lightning from Saguru’s hands. He then dangled it in front of his face, slowly walking backward until he made it into their bedroom. Sitting Saguru on the bed, Kaito untucked the comforter and wrapped it around Saguru’s shaking shoulders. Finally, he handed him the coffee. Saguru looked at it, his eyelids drooping from the warmth of the comforter, and began to slump slowly to the left. Kaito took the drink again, smirking, and set it on the bedside table. Either Saguru would drink it cold in the morning like a trash-person or Kaito would inevitably drink it before bed.

Shinichi was a lot heavier than he looked and Heiji was more uncoordinated now than he was when he was drunk. Together, they slowly dragged Shinichi into their bedroom as well, and plopped him down next to Saguru, who curled around Shinichi in a sleepy haze. Heiji threw himself back on the bed and tried to take Kaito with him, but gloriously failed and just managed to rip Kaito’s shirt instead.

So here he was: shirtless, drinking way too many shots of espresso, and looking over case files like it was his actual job. Sometimes it just needed a bit of a creative eye, y’know? A touch of finesse to pull the suspects from the ever-increasing lines of interview dialogue, a bit of flair to find a witness that was looked over, or a magician’s hand to discover a picture that lay undisturbed at the back of a manilla folder. Starting from scratch, with nothing but two eyes and hot coffee, no preconceived ideas or theories, was sometimes all that a case needed. Not that his boys were dumb, far from it, they were probably a little too smart for their own good. They were, well, detectives and they thought like detectives . Kaito was, depending on who you asked, a magician or a thief. A magician and a thief.

It did take him a while, though, to find what they had missed. A small polaroid and a paper stuck to the back of casefile #37. Witness: Elidith Harney. An American tourist. She didn’t quite fit the timeline they had already established but Kaito was sure they wouldn’t mind backtracking a bit. He laid the file down and put a pink post-it note on it stating the new evidence and then signed it with a Kid doodle.

His three detectives lay in bed, Saguru still curled around Shinichi, and Heiji still fidgeting awake, snacking on some fig newtons that he’d apparently stashed somewhere in their bed. Heiji offered him some as he climbed under the covers and Kaito took two. They ate to the sounds of birds chirping outside and Saguru’s alarmingly loud snoring. Kaito finished his second fig newton as he watched the sun filter through the cracks in the drapes, with Heiji’s arms wrapped securely around his torso.

Another case solved - another day done. All of the detectives wrangled and given some well-deserved and much-needed rest. Kaito settled down onto the pillow, adjusting Heiji’s arms as he turned to face him. He pressed a kiss on his cheek and took the rest of the fig newtons from him.

“Go to sleep, Heiji.” Kaito smiled and nuzzled into Heiji’s chest.

#hakukaiheishin #sagukaiheishin #heishin #kaishin #hakukai #ot4: mischief and murder #dcmk #dcmk fanfiction #hannes writes #hanneswrites #2018

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tarotcana · 7 years ago

Text

Rewritten Justice

Author: Me. Length: 2,028 words Fandom: Magic Kaito Characters: Nakamori Aoko, Kuroba Kaito, Hakuba Saguru, Nakamori Ginzo. Rating/Triggers: T for Teen. Triggers are wounds, guns/weapons, etc. Summary: “Of course, she does. She’s not an idiot.” A rewrite of Chapter 36 in the Magic Kaito manga. KID genuinely did pass out on top of Aoko, instead of faking it and switching places with her.

A/N: ( Written because Gosho... Please give Aoko a gun... )

Fanfiction.net / AO3

Against popular belief, the Inspector’s daughter wasn’t an idiot.

You don’t spend most your life with someone, only to not notice them once they change their clothes. A lifetime of knowing someone leads to knowing their quirks— The way they smile, the little twitches of each gesture they make. The way their voice cracks when they’re scared or in pain, and even further along the line, the way they smell. If KID didn’t want Aoko to recognise his identity, perhaps asking her to prop him up instead of allowing and instructing her on the last few locks wasn’t the best idea.

The final confirmation, however was the crack in the pronunciation of her name, and the weight of his frame that had collapsed onto her body. Panic coursed through her veins, hands quick to move him off her so she could breathe.

“Geez! What the—” The boy didn’t even flinch. The door in front of them clicked into motion as her hands pushed at his back, frantic in her attempt to wake him. “Hey— What’s wrong? Get a hold of yourself!” Fingers tried to push past clothes to find the wound and whatever tricks he may have in wait for her before a sickeningly calm voice blanketed the room.

“Wonderful… I’ve always believed that you would be able to open this door, KID.” Blue eyes search for the source of the voice, falling upon the smug smirk of the Chief Priest. “For a long time, this door lay shut, unable to be opened by anyone.” Elegant footsteps are taken forward towards them, though the Priest’s tone changes to one Aoko can only relate to as sinister.

“Ch-Chief Priest Niwano Yasuyo…!? B-But why--!?”

“I shall tell you before you visit Hades. You need not take any souvenirs, right? Grab those two!” Rising onto her feet only made it easier for the smiling henchman to pick her up, arms and legs raised just above the ground. Capturing her wasn’t her concern, however, as she watched the last henchman pick up the injured thief with little-to-no care at all— Aoko’s heart lurching and forcing her to kick her feet in anger. “I thought if you opened this door, the chamber would be filled with sleeping gas, but…” Aoko can hear the Chief Priest breathe pretentiously, “Looks like there will be no need for that.”

“Let us go, now!” Demands from Aoko fall on deaf ears, her feet struggling against the man holding her legs. There’s no magic trick that can pull KID out of that pain-induced coma, nor is there any stopping the Priest from rattling on about the reasons why she’s put them both in this situation. Aoko had to rely on herself alone, mind frantically flying through options of what she could do to free herself.

… Of course! Frisking KID earlier in attempts to help him did give her an advantage.

Kicking her leg out aggressively, she used the push of her weight to give her arm leverage to reach into her collar, not giving herself even a moment to think before she took out the card gun in her shirt and shot at the person holding her legs. The unexpected recoil throws her hand back behind her, fingers accidentally pulling the trigger of the card gun once more to keep it in her grip. There were no bullets that were released from this gun, of course. Simply two sharp cards filtering out anaesthesia, embedded in both the wall and the man’s shoulder. The effects are surprisingly quick, Aoko landing on the floor with a small thud once the man holding her arms falls asleep. This, of course, alerted the person holding KID, dropping him just as Aoko hurriedly shoots the wall next to the man’s head.

The final man collapses beside KID, just as the Priest is about to finish her monologue about her ‘righteous duty’. Aoko finally decides she can breathe, legs shaking as she rises to her feet. There’s no time to check on the incapacitated KID on the floor, fingers trembling in their grip of his gun. Her steps are quiet, controlled as she approaches the Chief Priest. Lips pursed in a menacing line. As the Chief Priest leans to pick up the scroll, Aoko takes it first with her free hand, gun pressing up against the back of the Priest’s skull.

“Eeeh? Is that what this scroll says? That’s why you were using KID, so you could get your hands on it?” The scroll is already so worn, it’s a surprise it didn’t crumble into dust once Aoko’s fingers touched it.

“Kaitou KID!?”

“No, I’m Aoko.” She doesn’t smile, her eyelids lowering in slight annoyance. She thought it’d be obvious that KID, who is obviously injured, is the incapacitated one on the floor right now. You can’t disguise pain like that. Or was it the Chief Priest’s fool’s hope, given that entire monologue of believing ‘only KID would be able to open this door’? Anyone who knew their left and right could open it…

Desperation drips from the Priest’s lips, head twisting towards her unconscious henchman, calling to them not unlike Aoko had called to KID earlier. Those cards KID had loaded into his gun seemed to have a long-lasting effect, however, each member dozing like a child napping after a long day. An invisible fishing hook tugs Aoko’s lips into a pleased smirk, gun still aimed at the culprit’s head. “KID’s cards are kind of magical, I guess! They’re sleeping like babies.”

She pauses, but only so she can take another deep breath to cool down the adrenaline still pumping through her system. “You lured KID to a fake Kannon Statue. You had KID and I fall into a pit and brought us to this labyrinth and locked us in. You disguised the door of the safe as a way out, and wanted KID to open it so he could find the scroll… But, what a pity!” Giving a slightly sadistic smile, she lets go of the scroll’s end, letting it roll out to reveal the crumbs left of a very lucky bug’s meal. “Bugs have made a meal out of the scroll, there’s nothing left to read! But I guess even that’s treasure for a Chief Priest that doesn’t know her left from her right…”

The stampede of footsteps is what causes Aoko to pause in her mocking demeanour, eyes leaving to look at the door behind them. Had the task force found them already? Hakuba-kun was a genius! Even if KID wasn’t really in the position to leave… She’d deal with that the minute her father entered the door.

“This is the end, KID! You’ll never make it out!” The laughter from the priest made Aoko slouch her shoulders in defeat, shooting the rest of the cards at the top of the walls, hoping it’d do something. To her luck, the walls were fake, popping out the moment their attachments were attacked, Aoko giving the woman a pout.

“I’m Aoko! Are you blind?” A slam against the door behind them interrupted the tension in the air, the Chief Inspector’s voice bellowing out for his daughter’s location through the room. Jolting from her spot, she lowers the gun— “Tou-san! I’m okay! KID saved me—”

“K-KID!! It was all that damn KID’s doing!” The wailing from the Priest only served to frustrate Aoko as she moves closer to the thief, as if protecting him from both the task force and the Priest’s cries. “When I returned here, I found KID trespassing… I tried to catch him with the help of the Arizato Juuken people but failed…” So that’s what they were called, “And he stole… Th-The priceless treasure in this safe!”

“Tou-san, that’s not true! Chief Priest—” Her father already seemed to believe the other’s story, until Aoko’s phone beeped as indication that something had been stopped. Pulling out her phone as Hakuba reached her side to check on her, the screen lit up with a finished recording. “Ah…? My phone was recording?”

“Could I see that?” The phone is passed to Hakuba the moment he asks. The sickening calm tones of the Priest sounding off through Aoko’s phone are hard not to recognise, the Priest receiving an accusatory smug glance from the young detective. “Looks like the Chief Priest has a long explanation to give to the police, I’d say.”

“To think, you really managed to find out where KID was… We should probably arrest him while we can.” The Inspector grumbles, only to find his daughter with her arms around KID, lifting him up off the ground with little-to-no struggle. “Aoko… We can get him. You can put him down.”

“Tou-san, we can’t. We can’t arrest KID. He’s hurt, and he saved my life.” Steps are taken away from her father’s approaching figure, bringing the thief closer to her chest. Disbelief is written across Ginzo’s face, mouth opening and closing as he tries to figure out how to respond, like a fish out of water. “He landed on the glass when we fell because he was protecting me from the impact. It’s not right to arrest someone who might not even live to see the hearing!” It’s not her words that stop Ginzo from approaching, but the hot tears that begin to well in her eyes and streak her cheeks. Clapping a hand on the Inspector’s shoulder, Hakuba approaches Aoko instead, leaning in closer to keep the conversation private.

“Hakuba-kun, we aren’t arresting him. It’s not right.”

“… I agree. Follow my lead.”

Hakuba gives Aoko a firm nod, turning to address the rest of the task force. Aoko’s phone is handed to the floundering Ginzo, a serious gaze thrown his way. Aoko is far too headstrong like her father, even if Hakuba wanted to arrest the criminal in this way, he knew she’d take all chances to stop him. “I will escort Nakamori-san and KID to the hospital. He can be arrested once he’s in a stable condition.” As he speaks, his hand is placed on the small of Aoko’s back, pushing her and KID through the crowd of task force members. Ginzo grimaces in defeat with a nod, a shout to his command to let them through and arrest the main cause of this entire case. Hushed whispers were still traded between the two in case of lingering ears.

“I’m not taking him to a hospital, Hakuba-kun. I’m not allowing you to arrest him when he’s in this state, even when he recovers.”

“I know. I’m organising a ride for you to be escorted to a private doctor, and then home.”

“And KID?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“… Thank you, Hakuba-kun. I owe you big time.” She smiles, Hakuba’s car pulling up once they’re outside. Aoko receives a final nod and a small smile back, the back door of the car opened for her to get in. There’s no time wasted as she gently lays KID down in the backseat of the car, sitting beside him and resting his head on her lap. Hakuba closes the door for her, settling down in the front seat and instructing Baaya on where to go.

A couple of motions are clicked into place, and the car finally starts pulling away from the temple. As they leave, blue eyes capture sight of the Chief Priest in handcuffs being escorted into a police car, a satisfied smile crossing Aoko’s lips in triumph. Justice on one side had already been delivered, Aoko’s only concern now being quick enough to ensure that KID didn’t die from this endeavour they had been deceived into taking part in.

Through the mirror, Hakuba watches Aoko in silence, making note of the way her fingers subconsciously comb through the thief’s hair. A thought passes him as to whether she’s aware of the thief’s identity, given how protective she seems to be over him regardless of her daily professed hatred. Soon enough, that thought is pushed away and lost to the sound of the car’s engine, a knowing smile on the detective’s lips.

Of course, she does. She’s not an idiot.

#Magic Kaito #dcmk #dcmk fanfic #Nakamori Aoko #Kaito KID #Aoko Nakamori #Hakuba Saguru #Saguru Hakuba #Fanfiction

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mintchocolateleaves · 7 years ago

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Cost of Freedom (23/52)

Summary: In which two wanted criminals decide it’s a good idea to attempt a break in to Tokyo’s police headquarters. Prison!AU

[Beginning] [Previous Chapter] [Next Chapter]

8.14 p.m

"He's hiding something."

Aoko crosses her arms over her stomach as they finally leave the police station behind, glancing over at Ran with stiff shoulders and a steady frown. She hasn't said much after they'd finished watching the interviews, had only offered the smallest opinion that Kudo doesn't seem wholly innocent, but she has been gathering information of her own.

From beside her, Ran purses her lips, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. She doesn't comment at first, but when Aoko refuses to elaborate, she offers a short 'who?'.

"Hattori-kun." Aoko can't help but look back at the Osakan from where he's getting into a taxi for the evening with Toyama, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

She doesn't know what's off, exactly, but she's not stupid and it's not easy for people to fool her. Kaito, she thinks, is the only exception, and that's because he's KID. "Aoko doesn't think he's being entirely truthful."

"What makes you think that?" Ran asks. She sounds distant, almost as if she's still caught up on the interviews they've watched, trying to process the words Kudo had said. Aoko doesn't blame her, not really - even she's a little put off by the delusional words she'd heard, the borderline hysteria that had crept into Kudo's voice as the interview had proceeded.

"Aoko asked him when he last saw Kudo-kun," she pauses, takes a moment to sort the words in her head, "and he told Aoko when they'd last visited. Doesn't Ran-chan find this suspicious?"

They cross the road, having both made a unspoken agreement to walk to Kudanshita station with one another, and Aoko holds her breath, waiting for the response. She's not Hakuba, she knows she's hardly detective material, but she is normally a good judge of character.

"I admit it's strange..." Ran trails off. She doesn't sound wholly convinced that it's anything, and Aoko finds irritation building in her stomach - it'd been obvious when he'd talked that Hattori had spoken that he's a poor liar, and so he'd evaded questions and given them half-truths instead. "But-"

"Aoko thinks that he's seen both Kudo-kun and Kaito recently," Aoko says, skipping over the cracks in the pavement. She feels strangely animated beside Ran. "Aoko thinks that why Hattori-kun made sure not to show up on official reports, because he didn't want to be linked fully. What if he helped-"

Ran shakes her head now, glancing over in disbelief. She says, "if that was the case, then he wouldn't have told everyone he'd visited in the first place."

"But-"

"And anyway," Ran adjusts her bag, pulls at her jumped so that the fabric doesn't ruffle beneath the strap, "Saguru-kun and I phoned him early this morning, at the exact time Shinichi and Kuroba-kun escaped. Hattori-kun, he has an alibi."

Aoko closes her mouth and thinks of alibis. She thinks of the time she'd tried to prove that Kaito wasn't KID to her dad, and how he'd found a way despite being beside her, to commit a crime - she reckons it was during the film. He had been unusually quiet during it, hadn't given her his usual commentary on it.

Either way, she knows that alibi's aren't concrete, that they can be faked and staged.

"Maybe Aoko's just reading too much into it," she says, offering the other girl a smile. "It's probably nothing."

Except, it doesn't seem like something she wants to drop. Wariness fills her, and she can't help but bite down on her lip, wondering whether it'd be foolish to let another one of her suspicions drop because she's supposed to be trusting others.

"Aoko will take your word for it." She lies.

The following day

"You're certain this will work?" Shinichi asks as they're readying themselves to go to the police station. Kaito's barely talked to him all morning, too busy finishing up the disguises they're going to wear, adjusting the suit he's forced Shinichi to try on twice now.

He'd made the masks yesterday, after a short conversation with Heiji, and is waiting to put the finishing touches on, a bit of concealer to smoothen the edges and make it look more realistic, the creases of laugh lines beneath the eyes.

"Very," he hums, taking the suits cuff and sewing it so that it will fall from Shinichi's wrist in just the right way. He's only working from pictures he's seen from pictures he's found online, but the suit isn't going to be difficult to make, and he's certain Shinichi can pull it off. "I happen to be very skilled at what I do."

"Right." Shinichi says, dryly. Kaito feels tempted to just stab him with the needle he's holding, but he decides it's probably best not to. "Why don't you just steal their clothes like you used to during heists?"

"I'm used to the pressure," he says, cutting off left over thread once the cuff is correct, "so I can get changed quickly and apply masks with no difficulty. But you? You'd take too long. So we're going to show up in the disguises, except the masks of course."

"I wouldn't." Shinichi protests.

"Unless you only take ten seconds to change and throw on your mask," Kaito says, moving the the other sleeve, "you're too slow. And we don't want to waste a second."

Shinichi sighs. Then, from across the room, where he is throwing other clothes into a bag - the one's Kaito has left out for him - he stretches, lets out a groan.

He says, "I still feel guilty about this."

"Why?"

"We're stealing someone's... we're stealing identities, I... I don't know, something about it just doesn't feel right." He zips up the bag, lets out a sigh, sitting down on the sofa. The room doesn't have much in the form of furniture, only has a futon and couch. (Shinichi had insisted Kaito sleep on the futon. Kaito hadn't objected.)

Kaito hums in response, not overly empathetic.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Shinichi asks after a pause, gaze burning into the back of Kaito's head. The other sleeve finished, Kaito moves to his own disguise, picking up a skirt and adjusting it to so that it will make his hips appear wider when he puts it on.

"Why would it?" Kaito clicks his tongue, shakes his head. "I rather enjoy it actually."

"I'm questioning your mental state."

"You wouldn't be the first," Kaito laughs, and places the skirt back onto the futon where he's laid both disguises out. "What time is it...?"

Shinichi glances at the mobile phone, nods his head. "Almost 7 a.m."

"Good," Kaito says. He stretches out his arms, tries to relieve his bones of the ache that comes with sitting hunched over for hours, "the police records said that they're scheduled for a 9 a.m shift. If we catch the Shinjuku line then it'll take us twenty minutes to get to the station... You know them both, are they type to show up early?"

Shinichi nods, making his way over to the futon to grab his suit. "The last time I saw them, they had a habit of being at least fifteen minutes early."

"We need to be in the car park before them, so let's get there ten minutes earlier. If we aim to be at the station car park for half past eight..."

Another nod. Shinichi says, "I'll go get ready then."

Heiji wakes to the sound of his phone alarm.

Across the room, Kazuha lets out a groan and tells him to turn it off. Half asleep, Heiji leans across to his phone and presses snooze. He doesn't really want to get up, which is strange, considering how he's normally a early riser, but he pushes himself up anyway, thinking that he'll need to make contact with Kudo and Kuroba before they head to the station.

The time says it's half past seven - he'd promised Hakuba and the others that he'd meet up with them at around ten a.m, but with his knowledge of the plan Kuroba and Kudo have put together, he's wants to get there by nine a.m.

Glancing over at Kazuha, he lets out a sigh, and grabs his clothes to get changed. As soon as he's ready, he kicks the end of her futon, telling him that he's gonna head to the police station.

"Yer gonna leave me in Tokyo by myself?" Kazuha grumbles, sitting up. She rubs at her eyes. "Ahou, give me ten minutes, we'll go together."

Heiji loves Kazuha, he does, and maybe it'd taken him a while to realise it, but right now, he really doesn't want her to join him at the police station. Even if she's only going to sit on her phone - Heiji needs to be able to talk on the phone to two wanted criminals, and it's going to be nigh impossible if Kazuha comes with him.

Either way, he doesn't beg her to stay behind. It'd be too suspicious, and if he asks, it'll only cause Kazuha to grow more stubborn.

"Hurry up then." He grumbles, "Don't wanna be late."

He doesn't explain that the thing he doesn't want to be late for it the break in of two escaped convicts.

"You're at the police station now?" Kaito asks, phone pressed to his ear as he stands in the stairwell leading up from the car park into the police station.

Shinichi is also leaning against the wall, Kaito having recently helped him put on his mask when they'd first stepped foot into the stairwell.

"Yeah," Hattori says on the other side of the phone. "Kazuha and I just got here. I'm in th' bathroom at th' sec, so I can't talk long... But I'll have ta ditch her in a minute."

Kaito nods, glances around the wall into the car park and notices the car they're waiting for - a Mazda RX-7. He smiles, turns back to Shinichi, offering him a thumbs up.

"We have to head off as well." Kaito says, "call us as soon as you're inside the CCTV room, alright?"

On the other side of the phone, he hears a grumble of 'I can't believe I'm doin' this.' before a sharp inhale. Hattori says, 'alright', before hanging up, the line going dead against his ear. Kaito throws the phone to Shinichi, who pockets it, before pulling something out of his own pocket.

Shinichi narrows his eyes.

Kaito glances as two detectives get out of the car, one of them holding two coffees. When Shinichi opens his mouth, Kaito shakes his head, hisses 'catch the coffee, okay?'

And then, they wait - what only takes two minutes, lasts what feels like a lifetime. One of the detectives calls out 'go on ahead of me, I need to grab these files'. Footsteps echo in Kaito's ears, adrenaline pumping through his blood, burning against his veins.

Waiting is agonising.

Excitement builds in his stomach, and Kaito grins because the stakes are high and he's always loved dabbling with danger. Aoko had called him an adrenaline junkie once, back before he'd become KID, back when he showed her every daring magic trick he'd thought up. Playing with fire and heights, with swords and throwing knives had made him feel a little like a circus act, but there had been magic there too.

They'd made a deal after the first magic trick - one that had included a tank of water and handcuffs he'd strapped to himself. Every idea he'd had, Kaito had to run by Aoko first - He told her, she had to tell him whether he could do it or not.

("Does Kaito really want to risk everything for this trick though?" She'd asked him, once. Usually, it would make him say no, because he hadn't wanted to worry Aoko - she was his final trick, the trick he used to avoid doing dangerous things. Mainly because he hadn't had the nerve to tell her that he'd wanted to do anything that involved overcoming what might destroy him.)

Then he'd become KID, and the responsibility of being told not to do dangerous things had fallen to Jii. And it had always been easier to ignore Jii on subjects like danger.

Without anyone to hold him in check, he's almost giddy. He's burning up, too much energy swimming around him.

Kaito wants to act.

He doesn't want to be stuck in his head, waiting for all of the action. He wants to feel the rush he'd felt when they'd escaped yesterday morning.

The second he sees the shadow approaching the entrance to the stairwell, Kaito readies himself to move. As soon as he sees the man's shoes, he pulls draws himself up, grabs hold of the beige suit the detective wears and slips around behind him.

"Hello Detective Takagi," Kaito says, voice mimicking Detective Sato Miwako's. He brings his spare hand up to Takagi Wataru's mouth, smothers any potential complaints, before pushing the taser he'd brought along with him from their previous escape into the detective's shoulder.

A crack of electricity. Takagi convulses, fingers going loose on the coffee's he's been holding. Shinichi reaches forward, catches the cups before they can fall, before leaning back. He looks the perfect image of the detective, down to the loose button on his jacket.

"I hope you don't mind if we borrow your identity for a little while."

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hanneswrites · 6 years ago

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i found something interesting and we should discover it together

Title: i found something interesting and we should discover it together

Pairings: Hakuba Saguru/Kuroba Kaito/Kudo Shinichi/Hattori Heiji || HakuKaiHeiShin

Rating: T

Word Count: 1.8k

Summary: Private Detective Agency / College AU How did these four boys get together in the first place? Who knows.

Saguru sighed as he rubbed his temples. This case was eating him alive. Three weeks and no lead, no clues, no sign of a witness or a suspect, nothing. There was a knock on his door, a soft knock—Shinichi—before it creaked open to reveal the barely-open eyes of his lover.

“It’s morning, babe, go to bed.” Shinichi said, closing the door. Saguru could hear the shuffling of Shinichi’s slippers going down the hallway to his own office. A smile crept over his features as he made his way out of his own office, down that same hallway, and into their bedroom. Kuroba was already curled up in bed, hogging all of the blankets. He sighed as he climbed into bed and tried to burrow himself under the covers surrounding Kuroba. He shifted a bit to let Saguru in.

“Late night?” Kaito mumbled, wrapping his arms around Saguru’s waist and pulling him closer.

“Of course,” Saguru replied, “I suppose you’ve been asleep for a while.” He kissed Kaito’s forehead. Kaito hummed in response, burying his head into Saguru’s chest,

“Shhhh, sleep.”

A loud crash from the kitchen startled both Kaito and Saguru awake and Saguru was suddenly aware of a warm arm draped over him, overlaying Kaito’s arm as well.

“Shinichi is trying to cook.” Kaito groaned as he disentangled himself from Saguru. He slipped on a pair of lounge pants – clearly Saguru’s, as they were way too big for Kaito’s hips and pooled around his feet. Saguru moved to get up but was met with a hand on his chest, pushing him back down into the mattress.

“You finish sleeping. You know how you get when you’re sleep deprived. Plus, I think Heiji needs some company.” Kaito gave him a quick peck on the cheek before heading off to the kitchen, presumably to stop whatever atrocity was currently being cooked up by Shinichi.

It all baffled Saguru sometimes: his life now, how domestic they had become, how this crazy dream had become a reality, how well they worked together. How they’d gotten here—it was so far off now it felt like a dream. Part of him understood that they hadn’t always been like this, but it was just so damn hard to imagine the three of them not being an integral part of his life now.

By some stroke of luck, Heiji, Shinichi, Kaito, and he had all ended up at the same university. They had all studied together their first year, bouncing ideas off of each other. Even though not all of them had the same major or coursework, it was helpful. Sophomore year they had gotten an apartment together, for costs, they rationed. They all knew that was a lie, but that didn’t mean they’d admitted it. A large apartment: small bedrooms, one master bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, baths.

Unsurprisingly, Shinichi made the first move – on Heiji – that had been boiling even when Saguru had first met them. Saguru had bitten his tongue and bared the moderately loud moans coming from the master bedroom. He’d also bitten his tongue when he noticed Kuroba grow quieter as the weeks went on. He ignored it for about two weeks exactly before knocking on Kaito’s door in the middle of the night. There was light peeking out from under the door and Kaito had no reason to be up this late. The door cracked open, and Kaito, red-eyed and puffy-faced stood before him.

“Kaito,” Saguru whispered, his voice cracking halfway through, despite himself. He sounded pitiful. “What’s the matter?”

And that was how Kaito had ended up in Saguru’s bed, squeezing the life out of him and soaking the left shoulder of his nightshirt, explaining to him that he liked him, but he was confused because he also liked Shinichi…and Heiji. Saguru comforted him that night; he’d kissed his forehead and told him it was alright, that he felt the same way. But how would they tell the others? Heiji and Shinichi seemed content with what they had already. And Kuroba didn’t want to tell them, he didn’t want to burden what they had.

Saguru and Kaito had become lovers then, comforting each other, loving, settling. And they weren’t secretive about it, like Shinichi and Heiji tried to be. Both of them noticed the shift in the air then, the tense feeling permeating the apartment when they all ate together. It was Heiji that broke the silence this time.

“Ok. We’re all bein’ idiots. We gotta work whatever this is out.” Heiji sat them all down in the living room one fateful Tuesday.

“Work what out, Hattori?” Shinichi said, glaring up at Heiji, who glared back at him.

“Yer bein’ the most stupid. Quiet.” Heiji shushed, sitting down on the couch next to Shinichi, “Shinichi and I have been all jealous this whole time because y’all’ve been all over each other all the time.”

Saguru paused, he took the information in, turned it around in his mind, and almost snickered at him.

“And? Why?” He said. The words came out too bitter and he knew, but he refused to continue.

“And we’ve talked about it,” Heiji had a smile now, only to fall when Shinichi punched his arm, face a bright shade of red. “He likes both of you. I like both of you. We want to ask you if you’d join us.”

A while later, Saguru woke to Kaito patting his shoulder. Heiji had managed to nearly roll himself off the bed now, his head laying half on the mattress, half off. Saguru caught a fleeting smile on Kuroba’s lips.

“Dinner’s ready,” Kaito said, and Saguru took to the task of waking Heiji.

Spaghetti with Bolognese sat on the table, while little burnt bits of peppers sat discarded next to the stove. Shinichi sat at the dinner table, waiting for the rest of them, a sheepish smile on his face. Heiji followed them in, still rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“Shinichi,” Heiji yawned, “it smells like you burnt down the kitchen again.” Shinichi chuckled nervously and Kaito burst out laughing.

“He almost did!” Kaito said, “When I got out here he was dozing off on the table and the peppers he was trying to cook had sparks coming from them.” Shinichi blushed, wringing his hands together.

“You’re one to talk, Kaito. You nearly knocked down a load-bearing wall while trying to hang up a shelf.” Heiji snorted, pointing accusingly at Kaito with his fork. Kaito laughed along with him.

“I did do that, didn’t I? But I wasn’t the one who filled the laundry room with bubbles because he overfilled the washing machine and put an entire bottle of dish soap in.” Kaito countered and everyone looked at Saguru, fondly remembering the “Laundry Incident”.

“To be fair, I had never done laundry before. Baaya-san always did it for me.”

“How did you survive living alone freshman year?” Shinichi, who was now halfway done with his second plate, asked.

“I paid my neighbor $50 per week to do it for me.” Saguru answered, gracefully twirling spaghetti around his fork.

“’Guru…..no……no….” Kaito chuckled.

“Hey, Heiji would just let his laundry pile up until Shinichi got tired of it and put them in the wash,” Saguru retorted.

“That was more out of laziness than necessity, to be honest.” Heiji said.

“You did break our first bed though.” Shinichi was smirking now, and that sent Heiji into a full-on denial rant.

“That bed was unstable from the beginning! Also, it wasn’t just me! Saguru had a hand in it as well.” Heiji huffed. Kaito patted him on the leg and smiled.

“Unfortunately, no. Saguru and I were in England when that happened, if you remember. “ Kaito continued, clearing the now empty plates from the table and putting them in the sink.

“Fine, fine.” Heiji laughed, “You got me. I suppose that’s not the worst thing I could have done.”

It was Kaito and Heiji’s turn to do the dishes. They usually tried to avoid this – pairing Heiji and Kaito together and trying to have them do literally anything productive. But tonight seemed to be starting off in the right direction, so Shinichi and Saguru settled down on the couch with the television blaring the local news channel. Fingers intertwined, resting against each other, languidly watching the newscaster freak out over every small piece of news.

“How is Ran doing?” Saguru asked, shifting a bit to let Shinichi lay his head in Saguru’s lap.

“She’s well. She and Sonoko moved in together recently and they’re having all of the ‘living together for the first time’ quarrels. He grabbed Saguru’s hand and placed it on his own forehead, “All the silly little fights, y’know? Ran is going to defend her Master’s thesis soon and she’s pretty stressed about that but I know she’ll be fine.” He closed his eyes as Saguru ran his fingertips slowly through his hair.

“I agree, if anything she’s probably over-prepared, knowing Ran.” Saguru said and Shinichi smiled.

“She really worries too much. Always has. Any updates from your various step-siblings?”

“No, but my dad and step-mom are doing alright. From what I’ve heard from them—” A loud crash resounded from the kitchen, followed by the sound of water hitting the tile floor and a fit of giggling from the two in the kitchen. Saguru sighed and Shinichi kissed the palm of his hand.

“Do you think we should go figure out what they’re doing?” Saguru asked, resting his hand on the side of his lover’s face.

“No. They’ll be fine.” Shinichi said, snuggling into Saguru further. The buzz of the television, the leftover, lingering, smell of dinner, the warmth of each other, it was hard not to lose yourself in it, Saguru thought, his eyes drifting shut.

“—OH DEAR! BREAKING NEWS FOR ALL OF YOU KAITOU KID FANS OUT THERE,” The newscaster nearly shouted, “The thief has released a new riddle and here it is…” Saguru’s eyes fluttered open and he could feel Shinichi shift in his lap, as the newscaster read off the riddle and the day the heist would take place.

“Kuroba—“ Hakuba started,

“Kaito!” Shinichi finished. The laughter in the kitchen stopped.

“Yes?” Kaito called.

“Really? A heist on your birthday? Again???” Shinichi sighed. There was a pause, followed by a guilty, “Nooo.”

“Why?” Saguru asked, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

“Why not?” Kaito called.

“Why didn’t we get a heist note?” Shinichi asked.

“It’s on Heiji’s desk.”

“Of course it is.” Heiji groaned.

“And what’s with this riddle?” Shinichi said, brows furrowed, “It makes literally no sense.”

Kaito burst into the living room, hand on his chest like he’d just been mortally insulted.

“Excuse you. It’s poetic. Ingenious, even.” Kaito scoffed, plopping down onto the couch next to Shinichi’s feet.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure you’re not running out of ideas?” Saguru smiled, running his fingers through Shinichi’s hair once again. As Kaito huffed out a speech about how they were all clearly lacking in knowledge of classic European poetry, Saguru closed his eyes and laid his head back on the couch-back.

#hakukaiheishin #sagukai #heishin #kaishin #sagukaiheishin #dcmk #dcmk fanfiction #hannes writes #hanneswrites #2018 #oneshots #ot4: mischief and murder

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mintchocolateleaves · 8 years ago

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Cost of Freedom (17/52)

Summary: In which Saguru and Ran learn about the escape. Prison ! AU

[Beginning] [Previous Part] [Next Part]

Tokyo - 6.12 a.m.

Unlike the streets of Tokyo, which are unusually quiet this morning, the police station is bursting with activity. The moment Ran races in, holding onto Saguru's sleeve to avoid losing him through the crowds of officers, she knows that something has gone extremely wrong.

The way Saguru's lips purse tells Ran that she is not the only one is confused. She'd listened faintly to his side of the phone call - something she knows is rude, but she'd been excited over the concept of it being Hattori - and from the abrupt end to the call, she knows that he's not had anything explained to him.

They weave through the sea of uniformed police. She recognises some faces, but most of the officers are blank slates, not people Ran has met or talked to.

"Come on Ran-san," Saguru says, and he offers her a smile. It's strained, but recently most of the detective's smiles have been awkward. She wonders whether it's because he feels guilty about the case they're working on, for putting it down and walking away, but Ran's not sure. Maybe it's the fact that he knows today is May 4th, Shinichi's birthday, and that, like last year, Shinichi will be spending it away from home.

"But division one isn't this way," Ran protests.

"I have a feeling," Saguru says, rolling his eyes at the sight of a particularly burly officer, shoulders drawn, chest puffed out, "that we'll find them in the same place."

Ran doesn't ask why - it's obvious from how packed the station is that something has happened. It's just a matter of getting that information and helping Saguru in whatever way she can, so they can both focus back on Shinichi.

"Okay," Ran says, and lets out a sigh when they break away from the crowd and into the corridor, "have you got any idea what's going on?"

Saguru turns to her, shakes his head. "Not a clue."

The walk to division two's headquarters isn't that far, it's just a floor beneath homicide, and Ran feels like she's being lazy when they push through the doors and haven't had to climb any staircases.

Saguru straightens out, almost as if he's smoothing out the cracks in his posture rather than the creases of his clothing. It makes him seem more confident, compared to the quiet nervousness she'd seen festering during the taxi ride to the station.

Division two is not quite as busy as reception, but alarm is thick within the room - it's not as lighthearted as the theft division has been joked to be. Instead, it seems dull, lifeless despite all of the frantic movements, people banging their fingers against keyboards with obnoxiously loud taps, other shouting into their phones.

The words seem to blur together as Ran follows Saguru towards Inspector Nakamori's office. Somehow the inspector has kept his job, despite having personal ties to Kaitou KID.

Saguru raps his knuckles against the door. Since he knows they're expected, he doesn't wait to open the door, pushing it open as a wary 'come in' echoes from inside.

They step inside. The office isn't small, but with the amount of people milling inside, standing by the desk, sitting in the chairs, it is claustrophobic.

"Hakuba-kun," Inspector Nakamori says. Despite the tiredness pulling at his eyes, he looks almost relieved to see the detective. "Come in - no, don't bother closing it, people keep coming in and out, we shouldn't bother-"

A girl is sat on his desk, and Ran thinks for a moment that she looks awfully familiar - an awkward laugh bubbles in her throat, when she realises it's because they look alike, the same brown hair, same azure eyes staring out at the world. Saguru has talked about her in the past, a classmate of his, Nakamori Aoko. Her expression is blank, although Ran can see expressions flickering across her face, forming and falling apart.

"You wanted me Inspector?"

Now that she surveys the room, Ran's pretty certain that she recognises the other detectives in the room. Superintendent Matsumoto from Division one is standing beside Inspector Megure, detective Takagi on his phone beside them. Superintendent Chaki of Division is reading over a file, although he looks up at the sound of Saguru's voice.

Ran feels tension coil in her stomach. It feels like a snake, getting ready to strike.

"Yes." Inspector Nakamori says, standing to the side of his desk. He squeezes his daughter's shoulder quickly, before side stepping around her, making his way towards them. "It's about Kaito... It's about KID."

"Kuroba-kun?" Saguru tilts his head slightly - to some, it might come off as arrogance, but Ran knows it's simply confusion. "What about him?"

Inspector Nakamori hesitates, glances away from them. He says, "KID escaped from his cell early this morning. He's out of prison."

The glare that blooms across his daughter's face, does not linger, just a flash, before it disappears again, and Ran recalls what Saguru has told her about the case of Kaitou KID. Nakamori Aoko had quite possibly been the person who KID would have seen as his closest friend - Kuroba Kaito, the thief's real identity - has practically been family to the Nakamori's.

"He's what?" Saguru breathes the words, almost disbelieving. Except, from the way he collects himself within the next second, Ran realises that he's not as alarmed as the police officers. He's surprised, yes, but not overly so. Almost as if he'd been expecting it.

"KID escaped," Nakamori Aoko mumbles, "that thief escaped."

Saguru doesn't have time to respond before Superintendent Chaki steps forward, turning the file around. He says, "we've just had the log of KID's visitors faxed over. You're the only one he's seen."

Oh no, Ran thinks, that doesn't sound good.

"I visited him twice, yes." Saguru says, and he's biting his lip, recalling the visits. It makes Ran recall her own visits to Shinichi, makes her miss him even more. "The visits were never long."

"We need to find him as quickly as possible," Superintendent Chaki says, closing the file, "before he has a chance to completely disappear. Anything KID said during these visits would help us."

"Of course," Saguru says, and he tells them. Ran listens in silence as he tells them about how his first visit had been a plea for KID to tell him about the danger he'd encountered during his heists, and how KID had been unwilling to give him any facts.

"And the second visit?" Inspector Nakamori asks. He wears a frown, his eyes narrowed with focus - if there's a part of him that feels dismayed by KID's escape, he's buried it deep inside him, has decided that his work takes priority.

"What can you tell me about that one?"

Saguru rubs at his chin, hesitates. He's seems slightly pale, almost as if it pains him to remember his most recent interaction with the thief. He says, "he seemed... different."

"Different?" Nakamori Aoko echoes.

Nodding, Saguru crosses his arms around his chest. "He asked for me to visit, but when I arrived he seemed... subdued." The looks he gains urges him to continue. "Quite honestly, he seemed depressed, like he was weighed down by something. I couldn't ask though, he was taken from the room before we could talk in depth."

Ran flinches at the memory - the screaming on Shinichi's behalf is still painful, like a wound that has been unable to heal.

"Kaito was removed from the visiting room?" Inspector Nakamori asks. Behind him, his daughter's stare is unwavering, only broken by random blinking.

"He was..." Ran knows that Saguru is looking for a polite way to say having a mental breakdown. "...Upset."

Out of all of the... Well, Ran doesn't think she'd be able to word it in a better way either. All she'd be able to say is that there had been an outburst, and then screaming, until Ran's ears had been ringing with the fact that Shinichi is going to die.

"Any idea why?" Superintendent Chaki asks.

"He asked me to look into the Kudo serial killing case," Saguru's quiet now, and there's certainly guilt in his voice. "I refused, seeing as I'd already..."

He trails off and no one comments on what Saguru was going to say. They all remember the first month after the conviction, how Saguru had thrown himself into the case, unwilling to accept the verdict Shinichi had received. Ran remembers how he'd told her he didn't want to visit Shinichi until he'd solved the case, how he didn't want to visit until he could tell his friend he was free.

He'd never visited - Shinichi remained trapped.

"KID talked about Kudo Shinichi's case?" Saguru nods, and Superintendent Chaki turns to the detectives from Division one, eyes narrowed. "There you have it, there's the link."

"I'm sorry," Ran steps forward, stands beside Saguru, "what has this got to do with Shinichi's case?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand either," the Englishman adds. "Why is division one concerned with an escaped thief?"

Inspector Megure glances at his fellow detectives, and after silence has enveloped the room, the adults all seem to come to a consensus. He lets out a sigh, long and suffering, rubbing at his mustache.

"We're not concerned with Kaitou KID's escape," Inspector Megure says, "we're concerned with the serial killer he brought along with him."

Ran lets out a gasp, the sound is low and almost goes unnoticed in the silence of the room - she's never known a room to be so loud despite no vibrations meeting her ear drums.

"You don't mean-"

"Yes. KID helped Kudo Shinichi escape from prison."

Nara - 8.32 a.m

Kaito wakes and realises that he'd much rather fall straight back to sleep.

His bones ache, his heart is quick in his chest, palpitations making it feel like he's been running despite only having just woken up, his mind blurry. He feels the pain in his hands now, where he hadn't felt it before, and it keeps him from falling straight back to sleep.

"Yer awake then." It's Hattori. He's sat back against the wall, cradling a water bottle in his hands, one eye open, watching him. "Kaitou KID."

Kaito lets out a sigh, realises that he can't find it in himself to be formal with the detective who's helped aid their escape and says, "call me Kaito."

"If that's what ya want," Hattori says, throwing the water across to him. It lands in front of Kaito on the futon, falling with a sloshing sound that reminds him of the ocean. "Kudo's still asleep, so we're gonna have to stay 'ere for a while."

They're moving again? So soon? Kaito thinks that now is the best time to stay low, while people are expecting them to be moving back and forth, from place to place.

"We're going somewhere?" The thief asks, rubbing at his eyes. He picks the water bottle up, uncaps it and gulps down water. He doesn't realise how hungry he is until he feels water slithering down into his stomach, settling and churning. His throat, at least, is no longer parched.

"Kudo din't tell ya?" Hattori asks, and his expression shutters from open to closed off within seconds. He waits, before shaking his head, letting out a small laugh, "I can't believe 'im. I mean, I can, he's always like this, keepin' th' details to 'imself."

Kaito caps the water bottle, placing it down opposite him. "Everything's on a need to know basis with the guy... but... he said he'd tell me."

Hattori offers him a smile, pushes himself up. He said, "I bought instant ramen, if yer hungry. I kno' it's not much, bu' it was all I really though' of when I was at th' shops."

Kaito feels his heart leap. "Don't apologise - I... Ramen's great seriously. We haven't had anything other than rice inside... Ramen's fine."

"I'll make it then," Hattori says, standing up. "Wake up Kudo, an' he'll explain everythin' to you over food."

"Do you have coffee?" Kaito asks, "I'm pretty sure Kudo will kill me if I wake him without coffee."

"I'll make some." Hattori laughs.

Oh thank God.

#I'M EXCITEDDDDD #I'm practically buzzing #I love these next chapters even if they're not as intense as 14/15 was #The shift from perspective to perspective is just SO refreshing #Fic: Cost of freedom #mywriting #Kudo Shinichi #Kuroba Kaito #Hakuba Saguru #Mouri Ran #Hattori Heiji #Nakamori Aoko #Various detectives but I'm not tagging them all #Just #Nakamori Ginzo #DCMK

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mintchocolateleaves · 8 years ago

Text

Cost of Freedom (2/??)

Chapter Summary: In which Kudo Shinichi is amused, and Kaito has a visitor. Prison ! AU

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"I've got to admit," Kudo says, "I wasn't quite expecting this."

Still in pain from the taser, Kaito doesn't respond with anything other than a wince. He's pretty sure that he's going to be fine, but he still feels like he might throw up. And his ears are ringing, which, all things considered, probably isn't a good thing.

He lets out a groan, runs a hand through his hair.

"You're not very good at keeping out of trouble, are you?" Kudo continues. His tone, while seemingly exasperated, is coupled with a small smirk. He's amused by this - by the fact that Kaito's struggling with the aftermath of being tased. "You'll feel better if you take deep breathes."

Kaito tries to breathe. It's not too difficult, really, to regulate his breathing and calm himself down, but it does take time until he starts to feel moderately human again. He wonders how Kudo knows how to deal with being tased? Has he himself felt it, or has he seen the result after a particular case?

"Thanks..." Kaito says after a while, leaning backwards to stare up at the ex-detective. If he looks closely, he can see scarring beneath Kudo's lip, one white scar reaching down the side of his jaw. It's faint - he'd not seen it before when they'd met, but now it's prominent and Kaito has to consciously tell himself not to stare.

He wonders how he got it.

"For a phantom thief, you're not very good at planning your escape though, are you?" Kudo says after a while. He's sat on the bottom bunk, leaning back against the wall. His arms are crossed, his legs spread out in front of him.

"I was almost out," Kaito protests.

"Almost isn't quite free though, is it?" Kudo says, raising an eyebrow. He rolls his eyes, turning to stare at the wall, rather than at the thief himself. "I mean, you can pretend all you want, but in the end you've just made things harder on yourself."

Kaito doesn't have a plausible explanation for that. He's known from the moment the handcuffs were placed around his wrists that he was going to be treated as a flight risk - now that he's actually tried to flee though, he's going to be flagged as an even higher threat to security.

Admittedly, it wasn't his best idea.

"I'm surprised they didn't throw me in solitary confinement or something." Kaito breathes, standing on shaky legs to glance outside the cell bars. Even on his toes, it's difficult to see over the railings. "At least I got off fairly lightly."

Kudo purses his lips. He says, "I imagine they think assigning you to a new cell is punishment enough."

Looking over his shoulder, Kaito tries for a smile. It's not quite KID-good, but he's pretty sure he could fool people into believing he's unaffected by his conversation with the ex-detective. He says, "I get the top bunk, right? So it doesn't seem like much of a punishment."

Kudo doesn't respond. Instead, he lays back against his bunk, scoops one arm beneath his pillow and curls into a ball, ending the conversation without some much as a second thought. As Kaito climbs his way up to his own bunk, he can hear faint mutterings from the bottom bunk.

He's not sure what to feel about that.

"I don't get it," Kudo says after a moment, "the guards all change over at this time. Why would you try to escape during the busiest twenty minutes of the day?"

Kaito isn't completely sure.

"You can't be both reckless and free in here," Kudo mumbles as Kaito closes his eyes. "You need to choose one and stick with it."

~~~

Kaito has never needed much sleep - it's a side effect of stealing under the moonlight while still being a high school student - so he's kind of surprised when he jumps down from his bunk to stretch his legs and finds Kudo reading a book.

"Oh," Kaito says when the other man looks up. "You're already awake?"

Kudo yawns, placing his book down onto his bunk. He looks different today, it's less easy to read him - yesterday he'd been a book written purely in Hiragana, today he's kanji.

"I wanted to finish my book before the library cart comes around," Kudo says, shrugging. "so I've been reading since the shouting woke me up."

"Shouting?" Kaito asks. He's a fairly light sleeper, so he's kind of surprised he slept through it, especially if it's loud enough to wake other up. stretching out his arms, he spares a glance outside his cell. Sunshine is starting to peek through the windows, but overall, the grey walls make the place seem lifeless.

"It's Saturday today," Kudo says, re-opening his book. It's a dog-eared copy of a Edogawa Rampo book, pages yellowed and curling in on themselves. "It's visiting day. Naturally, people are excited."

Kaito has obviously missed that memo.

But that makes him stop - will he get any visitors? Or will he go into the visiting room, sit down and wait for people who don't want to see him. He wonders if his mother will come, or if it's too much of a risk for the Phantom Lady to set foot near any prisons. It would have been nice to have known in advance.

Kaito runs a hand through his hair - Will Aoko visit him? Will Inspector Nakamori? It's stressing him out because he didn't even know, and now he's nervous.

"...You didn't know about the visits." It's not a question.

Pivoting on his foot, Kaito jumps back up to his bunk, burying his head into his pillow. He says, "I did not."

Kudo clicks his tongue. He says, "then you're not going to even go to the meeting rooms. People don't just show up to visit, you have to send them a visiting order first."

Lifting his head from his pillow, and leaning over the edge to face the ex-detective, Kaito sends him a smile. Worry dissolves into his stomach, leaving a faint relief behind. There's also lingering disappointment bleeding out of him. It's been over a month since his trial, and he really misses... he feels like he's trapped in a bird cage, and if there's anything KID wasn't ever meant to be, it is trapped.

"How about you Kudo-san," Kaito asks, the name sounding wrong from his lips. Maybe if they'd met in the past, he'd have called him detective, but he doesn't now. The label won't fit. "Are you expecting any visitors?"

"I try not to." Kudo sighs, turning his page, "there's someone who shows no matter how much I tell her not to though, so... who knows?"

~~~

It turns out that Kudo does have a visitor. The guards open the cell, give Kaito a glare, before dragging the ex-detective out of the cell with fingers digging into his shoulder. Whether it's painful or not is a question Kaito can't answer - the moment the guards opened the lock, Kudo's face switches from faintly amused to a cold glare.

Kaito isn't sure which expression is the real face of Kudo Shinichi, even with his experience of masks and poker faces.

"You as well," the guard says, beckoning him outside. Kaito hesitates, but jumps down from his bunk when he receives another barked order, "you've got a visitor."

"I didn't send out any visiting orders-" Kaito says, when one of the guard puts a cuff over his wrist, warning him that they'll shoot him with the taser if he so much as blinks without permission.

"Idiot," Kudo says, flippant now. "It means you've got a legal guest. Maybe a lawyer, maybe a police officer or something. Do you seriously not know anything about how this place works?"

For a moment, Kaito bites down on a sarcastic response. He swallows it instead, wary at the sudden stony-like glare and gritted teeth that are sent his way. What exactly has he done wrong?

"I've not exactly been here long," Kaito says instead, "I'm just getting the hang of it, Kudo."

The other prisoner hums, the sound low in his throat. It sounds almost like a growl, animalistic in a way that shakes Kaito to the core.

As they start making their way down the corridor however, Kudo turns his head so that he can see Kaito faintly, sends him a quick smirk and winks. He mouths, "it'll be a detective."

~~~

After all of the movies he's seen depicting various different prison visits, Kaito can calmly say that he feels extremely underwhelmed. There is no room with one way mirrors leading into a room that's secretly filming him. Instead, he is led into a room large enough to hold twenty small tables, chairs on either side of them.

He's not handcuffed to the table he's assigned either, which frankly, is a little offensive because Kaito is certain there's an easy way out. There's a vent at the end of the room, in the corner, and if he could just unscrew the grate Kaito would be out within seconds.

The difficult part would be unscrewing the vent - it'd be impossible without any tools, and even then he'd need to factor in the guards and what lies on the other side of the vents.

"Okay..." Kaito mumbles to himself. For a brief moment, he wonders whether he'd be able to steal any of the cutlery from the prison's kitchen, if he volunteers to help make meals. He's not sure though... if it turns out that each item is counted daily then he'd rather not add extra work to his schedule.

Plus he'd also have to find a way around the checks each guard conducts before entering the room.

He's so focused on a potential escape route, that he doesn't notice his visitor sit opposite him, sitting straight in his chair. He doesn't pay attention until the polite clearing of the other's throat, at which he turns his head, tongue clicking in irritation.

"What're you doing here, Hakuba?"

Hakuba is a lot of things. He's antisocial in an accidental way - the type who, in his attempt to fit in, only manages to ostracise himself further. He's dilligent, smart enough to see through Kaito's various heists, and his own identity. He's the one who eventually shackled him with handcuffs, the one who eventually handed him over to Inspector Nakamori to arrest.

Yes, Hakuba Saguru is a lot of things, but Kaito is pretty sure that he's not the type to gloat.

Meaning there must be a reason for the detective's visit.

"Kuroba," Hakuba says, posture alert as his eyes flicker around the room, "looking for ways to escape, I presume?"

Kaito shrugs, "nervous that I'd manage it?"

"I caught you once," Hakuba places his hands on the table. He doesn't steeple his fingers, but Kaito thinks that he's the kind of person who could without looking like a complete idiot, "I'm certain I could catch you again."

His poker face can do a lot, Kaito thinks, but it cannot hide the twitch of his eye. He says, "that's rather presumptuous."

Hakuba's smile is tight-lipped, and there is something behind his eyes that lurks, unspoken. Instead, he says, "you're just out of practise. Apparently you tried to stage an escape yesterday."

Leaning back in his chair, Kaito returns to looking around the room. He shrugs again, a self deprecating smile making it's way onto his face. "I wasn't quite expecting the tasers."

A small smile. For Hakuba, it's practically like he's beaming, the sadist.

"I am here for a reason though," the detective leans forward, "it's regarding your later heists."

"I'd assumed it was related to KID."

"Yes, well, we're still working through all the paper work even now," Hakuba sighs. It's hard to feel bad for him when Kaito's the one in prison, even if he knows how tiring police paper work can be. "It's about the heist where you attempted to steal the red admiral opal."

Kaito remembers it well - it had been the only heist where he'd been seriously injured. Following a confrontation with Snake, he'd managed to leave the gemstone at the cost of a bullet wound. He'd been lucky Jii had been waiting outside the heist location.

And here he'd thought Hakuba hadn't caught on to that. Someone must have heard the gunfire.

"Oh? That old butterfly stone?" Kaito waves the comment away, "why'd you want to bring that up? I'm pretty sure you were asleep for most of that one."

"I heard the shooting that night," Hakuba says, "and when you came into school later that week, you weren't exactly the epitome of health."

Hand lingering around the scar from that particular heist, Kaito wonders how much Hakuba had actually known all along. Had he had the proof outside of each heist? Had he waited until he could actually corner him during one of KID's shows?

"I... want to know more about the people shooting at you." Hakuba sighs. His shoulders are tensed. "I've got some questions if you'll answer them."

Kaito stills. Ever since he first found out the truth of his father's - the original KID - death, he'd decided to take down the organisation that did it. Not overtly, no, Kaito doesn't think he could ever take down a criminal syndicate by himself, but he had planned on stealing pandora for himself.

A gem that cries tears of immortality - The premise is both intriguing and terrifying.

He'd promised himself he would destroy it, and Kaito... even if he's been imprisoned, he know's he'll find a way to keep that promise.

"I'm not sure what I can tell you," Kaito says, relaxing his shoulders. He taps his fingers against the table, repeating the same word in Morse code: pandora.

"There was no shooting at all."

Hakuba purses his lips, frowning. "We can catch whoever did this-"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kaito waves the comment away, discarding it like shredded paper. Pandora is his to find, not Hakuba's, not the police. It will never fall into the hands of Snake and his men.

Pandora is the only thing driving him.

Kaito will shatter it if it's the last thing he ever does.

"I see," Hakuba says, although it's pretty sure from the slight tilt of his head, gold hair splayed over his forehead, that he doesn't. "If that's all, then I'll make my leave."

"I have a question," Kaito says, as Hakuba moves to stand up, "before you go."

The Brit's eyebrow quirks.

"Aoko... how is she?"

Hakuba stands. Sighing, he tugs on the corner of his jacket, gaze shifting towards the doors. "I haven't spoken to her much, she's not exactly keen to talk to the person responsible for taking her best friend from her."

Like a flower in bloom, Kaito tries not to wilt. He says, "she's always been stubborn."

"She has, however, expressed outrage at the fact she hasn't had a single phone call from you." Hakuba turns, pushes away from the table, "so maybe you could ask her yourself."

Maybe he should.

As Hakuba leaves, and Kaito's escorted back into the main prison though, he realises that he probably won't.

#DCMK #Fic: Cost of freedom #This au is so fun to write #except Hakuba is a pain #Kudo Shinichi #Kuroba Kaito #Hakuba Saguru #Mentions of Nakamori Aoko #and Nakamori Ginzo #mywriting

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