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This heist was probably the most planned out heist he had ever done in his whole career as Kaitou KID. He had known about the gem in question for quite some time and it was a prospective contender for Pandora. It was in the possession of a private collector that guarded his collection fiercely.
As in: he usually had it in a massive safe and only opened it every few weeks. It would have been easy to just get into the safe and steal it from there, but that would be boring and not nearly as satisfying as a big heist in front of a large audience. Luck had it that said collector had agreed to lend some of his pieces to the Osaka Museum of History for a special exhibit on Samurai Culture. And that the gem he was after was embedded in an ancient O-yoroi armor. Or rather in its helmet.
Such armors didn't usually have jewels in them, but a previous owner had added a sparkling emerald to the headpiece when he had restored the armor. The collector, Taganashi-san, had been talking to the museum for months to plan this exhibition and as Kaito had had an eye on the gem for even longer, he had been privy to these talks and could plan the heist months in advance as well. The talks had almost derailed when the curator of the museum had declared that the samurai armor wasn't authentic enough with its modifications, but luckily they had been able to come to an agreement.
It was easy to give his friends an excuse to where he would be the week and he had been in Osaka since Monday. The exhibit's big opening would be on Saturday evening, and Kaito had diligently prepared everything these past few days.
It was now Saturday Morning and Kaito was bored out of his mind. He soon regretted preparing everything so far in advance and planning everything to the T. It might be useful to be prepared, but it took all the fun and excitement out of it. The tricks he had developed were not overly complicated and the museum didn't have the best security, to begin with, so he knew it would be easy to do. And it was even ideally situated with the tall NHK broadcasting center to one side and the Osaka Castle park to the other. Getting away tonight would be a child's play.
Of course, he had sent a notice to the police and Nakamori-keibu and Division three were already permeating the whole museum, but they were no real competition. He was just glad the owner had agreed to go through with the exhibition, even though that had taken a little visit from Kaito inside the man's safe to deliver the note to demonstrate that there was no escaping Kaitou KID.
Kaito sighed and stirred the hot chocolate in front of him. Maybe he had been doing this for too long. If a heist didn't even excite him anymore, what was the sense in it all? Expect catching his father's killers, of course, but that wasn't fun. In the beginning, every new heist had gotten his blood pumping and now it was all just the same old to him.
He sat in the outside area of a small cafe close to the Castle Park. He could observe the busy streets of the city without being bothered by many people. It was a reasonably warm spring day, but Kaito was pretty hot because he was wearing a full disguise with a wig and make-up. Nobody was supposed to know that Kaito Kuroba was in Osaka, so he had been in costume for the past few days.
He had arrived at the beginning of the week, finished his preparations on Wednesday and had been sightseeing since Thursday. Now he was tired of looking at another tourist attraction. He had already visited the Castle, the Shitenno-ji temple, the Ferris Wheel and Harbor Village, as well as the Tennoji Park and Zoo and the Osaka Science Museum. His guidebook told him that the Aquarium was also worth a visit, but he wasn't doing that. No sir. But now he was bored to the bones. Osaka was a great city, but playing tourist all alone wasn't all that exciting. The past hour or so, he had been sitting in the cafe and had taken to people watching.
He had always been a keen observer, his time as the moonlight thief only enhancing that. So it was easy for him to spot the familiar faces in the crowd.
His favorite critic, Conan Edogawa, was walking down the busy streets in Osaka, the Osakan high school detective Heiji Hattori right by his side. He had never met Hattori himself, but he knew him from pictures he had found on the web when he had done some research on Conan.
Kaito perked up and followed the two of them with his eyes. The two boys were deep into a conversation and Kaito could see the younger laughing widely. He had never seen the little detective looking so carefree before. Sure, he seemed to have fun at his heists, but he was always pretty serious. Kaito loved the intense look in his eyes when the boy confronted KID. And while that cheeky little smirk had appeared in a few of his nightmares, he wouldn't want to miss it. But at this moment, he looked truly like a child.
Just before the two detectives were lost in the crowd again, Kaito jumped from the table and left a few notes. He knew this wasn't really polite to just leave the money for the waitress to find, but he was in a hurry.
It was easy to find the two detectives again and they were deep into their conversation. As they were distracted, it was simple to follow them on their way through Osaka. They didn't go far, only to the nearby park where Hattori bought ice cream for the two of them.
The park was quite crowded because it was a Saturday, but Kaito couldn't help but admire it. It was one of the biggest parks Kaito had ever been to, and while he didn't see the appeal in the asphalt ways, the trees were quite beautiful. Most of them were in bloom, creating an ocean of red, white and green.
Kaito watched the boys from some distance and his stomach swirled in discomfort. Hattori laid his hands on Conan's shoulder when he gave the boy his cone. Kaito really wanted some ice cream now. He watched as they walked through the park before they sat down on a bench. When it was clear that they would sit there a while and talk, Kaito sat down on a bench a few paces away and started to feed the local doves.
He was too far away to hear what they were talking about, but he could see both of them laughing and joking with each other. He could see that the Osakan put his arm around the smaller detective and he felt anger come up in him. What was that shitty detective thinking, putting his grubby paws all over his critic?
Kaito didn't have much experience with the high school detective, only some research he did on all the detectives he thought he could come in contact with. But he really started to dislike Hattori.
A plan was fast made and Kaito stood up and strolled in the direction of where the two detectives were still sitting. It was risky to get this close to them, but finally, Kaito felt the thrill he had been missing this morning. He was disguised as a young man in his late twenties that had no apparent relation to Kaitou KID or Kaito Kuroba, but you never knew with his detectives.
Just as he was in front of the bench, he called one of his own doves. The bird flew from behind the bench close to Hattori's head right at Kaito. It clipped Hattori's head and his base cap flew right to Kaitos feed. The dove picked at the thieves pocket once before flying away again.
Kaito put his best surprised face on and looked into the startled eyes of the detectives. The thief bowed down and grabbed the cappie before giving it to the stunned Osakan.
"I'm sorry! I was just feeding the doves. I didn't think they would be this aggressive," he said sheepishly.
Hattori took his cap and waved any apologies away. They said a short goodbye and Kaito was on his way again.
He hurried on the train and went back to his hotel to get a few things before he was back on the street. He felt almost giddy right now. It had been too long since he had had the opportunity for some mischief.
______
He looked at the tracker app on his phone and quickly located the tracker he had put on Hattori's cap. The detectives had changed locations by now and when Kaito caught up to them, he found them in a big mall.
The detectives were in a bookstore and Kaito rolled his eyes in exasperation when he saw them standing in the mystery section. Luckily they seemed to be almost finished. Conan went to the cashier and paid for the books he had picked out while Hattori stood behind him, looking bored.
Their next stop was a clothing store and Kaito couldn't believe his luck when Hattori looked at a hat display that was right in front of the changing rooms. Kaito had changed his disguise in his room and now looked like a slightly chubby teenage girl. He grabbed a shirt from one of the hangers at random and made his way to the changing room furthest down the line. He went by Hattori and the other changing rooms and when he arrived at his destination, he let the shirt with its hanger fall to the ground with a loud bang.
Hattori looked up and in the direction of the noise and Kaito put his trick into motion.
Several high shouts and a loud clap could be heard, but Kaito didn't turn around immediately. He picked up the fallen hanger and stood up slowly. The commotion behind him got even louder. When Kaito finally turned around, Hattori was surrounded by a gaggle of women of several ages and the detective held his cheek and looked completely baffled.
Kaito himself was surprised. He had only opened two of the changing room curtains, but apparently, all the women in the shop had decided to have a word with the pervert spying on half-naked women. Kaito felt a bit sorry for the women he had just uncovered and he was glad to see that none of them were actually indecently exposed.
He slipped by the ever-growing group of people and out of the shop into the next bathroom, where he changed his disguise again. It was always a risk to change genders in a public toilet, but the thief still transformed into a young man. Because it was always so risky, he was in the men's restroom when he heard the doors opening and Hattori's Osakan drawl talking.
"I told ya I didn't do it! It was probably a gust of wind!"
"In the middle of a mall, sure," Conan replied dryly. He sounded more amused than angry, so Kaito knew that Hattori had been able to avoid any serious consequences. He liked a bit of fun, but he wasn't out to actually harm anyone.
"Maybe they just forgot to close their curtains and only noticed when that girl dropped her hanger. I don't know! And I don't care! It’s behind us and now I just want to enjoy the rest of the day!"
They had entered the stalls beside Kaito by now and the thief hurried up getting into his disguise. He was out of the booth before the other two boys and surveyed the rest of the bathroom. There were three sinks in total, two regular-sized and one lower one for children. Kaito grinned and got to work. It wasn't too long later that he was washing his hands on one of the sinks when Hattori and Conan came out of their stalls. Hattori went to the sink beside Kaito and Conan to the children's sink on his other side. Before they could start washing their hands, Kaito wished them a good day and left the bathroom.
The door closed behind him and Hattori screamed. Kaito walked away with a smile on his face.
He wondered if he had to change his disguise again now that the two detectives had interacted with him, but he decided against it. It wasn't that uncommon to come across the same people several times, even in a mall this big.
Kaito sat down on a bench a bit away from the scene, but he could still observe a crew of janitors arriving and a few minutes later an apologetic store manager brought Hattori a set of dry clothes. Kaito hadn't damaged the sink and it should be a quick fix, so he didn't feel too bad.
After that episode, the detectives decided to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant. Kaito got a seat a few tables away from them. Before he could start any of his plans and pranks, one of the waiters fell down dead. The thief decided he would let the detectives handle this and not make their work any harder.
He thought about leaving before the police arrived as not to get involved in the investigation, but it turned out Hattori had solved the murder before they even showed up.
Kaito was pretty squeamish concerning dead people, but he couldn't deny that it was fascinating to watch Conan in his element and not be the main focus of his attention. Both detectives were hyper-focused and Conan easily led the suspects around by their nose without them being any the wiser. It only took a few minutes for a woman to confess to having poisoned her friend.
After they were all let go by the police, the two detectives met up with a friend of Hattori's, a Kazuha Toyama. Sadly Kaito didn't have much more time before his heist started and so he settled for flipping Toyama's skirt and listening to her berate the older detective on his way to his hotel.
____
A few final preparations were made and Kaito arrived a bit early at the museum to set up a few more traps. He hadn't planned for any detectives and now he wanted to do something a bit more special. He couldn't have Conan getting bored. And if most of the new traps were geared towards a certain Osakan detective, nobody had to know.
The museum was ten stories, but the exhibition halls were only on the five upper floors. Visitors were supposed to take an elevator to the tenth floor and then walk downward through the exhibition, with the hall for special exhibitions at the end of the walk-through, on the sixth floor.
That was also where Kaitos target was located.
It was one of the trickier locations for a heist to take place. The museum's security system wasn't the most sophisticated and because Jirokichi wasn't involved, Kaito didn't need to worry about any crazy traps. But he still had to cross five stories full of police officers, no matter if he wanted to flee from the main entrance or the roof.
The heist went over without a hitch and he would forever deny it, but when Hattori was covered in oil and feathers (tar was so much harder to get and oil was just as hard to get off the skin and not as harmful), he nearly fell down the stairs because he had to laugh so hard.
Hattori was almost as easy to lose as the police force and Hakuba hadn't been able to come tonight, but Conan had nearly caught him several times and the thrill of the chase made the night all the better. He should have expected it, but he was still surprised when he arrived on the roof and his favorite critic was waiting for him.
He hadn't actually planned to fly from the roof because tonight's wind conditions weren't really favorable towards his hang-glider. If he had tried to use it, he would probably smack against the tall building of the NHK Broadcasting Center next door. But Conan had chased him along paths he hadn’t planned for and he couldn’t go straight downstairs. Rather he had to run through the exhibition halls all the way up to the roof. There were a few very close calls and at one point he even had to hide behind a giant dinosaur skeleton. So now he had to go down all ten stories again without getting detected. But first he had to deal with his smallest critic.
He gave him his best KID smile, but Conan just frowned.
“What the hell was that today?” the boy asked.
“What do you mean?” Kaito tried to look as innocent as possible. Which wasn’t very if you were an internationally wanted jewel thief and had the steal of the night still in your hand. The detective continued as if he hadn’t even heard Kaito.
"You know, I don't get what you have against Heiji. I know he can be an obnoxious idiot, but why were you following us the whole day and trying to get him into trouble? Do you think he is such a big danger to you that you tried to take him out of the game before he could even make it to the heist?"
The boy almost looked like he was pouting and Kaito smiled wide. He thought about teasing the boy a bit more, but he looked pretty cute, so he didn’t keep him in suspense.
"Tantei-han may be a moderate detective, but he could never reach the potential of my favorite critic, Tantei-kun. I just wanted to have a bit fun when I saw you two this morning. I couldn't resist."
Conan looked more relaxed at those words, but before either of them could say anything more on that matter, the police stormed on the roof and Kaito used the commotion to slip into the crowd of policemen undetected.
It took a while, but he did manage to get to the ground floor without any additional problems.
Just as he was leaving the building and thought he was finally in the clear, a hand across his chest stopped him. He looked up into the face of Heiji Hattori, great detective of the West. Sweat began to gather on his forehead as he waited with bated breath what the Osakan wanted from him. The slightly taller boy looked searchingly into his face before sighing and beginning to talk.
"Ya know I really should take offense to how ya treated me today, but I saw how ya are with Ku-Conan and he told me all about your adventure at that manor so I won't begrudge ya for today … much anyway. Just keep in mind that my little brother has not only me as a protector but also several police forces and three-letter agencies that are really fond of him, so ya better think twice about messing with Conan, yeah?"
While Kaito was still standing there shocked, the detective lowered this hand and went back into the building. Kaito heard Nakamori-keibu shouting in the background and he finally left as fast as he could.
While he was running through some back alleys, he couldn't help but wonder if he really just got a shovel talk from Hattori Heiji about Edogawa Conan of all people. He made the resolution to think about that more at home because that train of thought was going to be such a mess and he didn't want to get caught by law enforcement because he couldn't stop thinking about what Hattori had said.
__________________________________
Heiji found Conan still on the rooftop when he went looking for him. The police were still running around like headless chickens, but the detectives knew that KID was long gone. Heiji looked at his shrunken friend as he stared out on the city.
"Let's go. If we hurry, we can still get those Ramen I was talking about earlier."
Conan turned around reluctantly, but he left the museum with the bigger detective. Down on the street, Heiji grinned down at his friend.
"So, was it worth coming to Osaka just for a KID heist?"
Conan blushed and put his hands in his pockets.
"I'm not here just because of that menace," he grumbled.
"Sure. You didn't call me the second you figured out were this heist was supposed to take place. Well, I have to admit the heist was kind of fun. Even if I could have done without the close and personal attention from KID for the whole day."
"What even was with that? Normally he only attacks Hakuba so viciously," Conan mused.
Heiji looked down at his companion with an indulgent smile.
"Don't worry. I'm sure you're going to be his focus again the next time."
He leaned down and ruffled Conan's hair. The elementary school detective grumbled angrily, but Heiji could see the blush on his cheeks.
The end