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Saguru takes a deep breath, closing his eyes just for a moment to ground himself. He takes note of the different sensations around him: the cool breeze on the open roof, the smell of rain that will likely come later in the night, the sounds of the busy street below with cops and Kid fans alike crowding the building, heard even over the clamor of cars on the surrounding roads. He opens his eyes, and steels himself for what will come next. “Take off your cape and jacket.”
“How indecent!” Kuroba says. (Bright, flirtatious.) He doesn’t look at Saguru, only at the gem between his fingers as he holds it up to the waxing gibbous moon, not yet covered by the dark clouds creeping into the sky. He doesn’t move as Saguru steps closer and stops just behind him. “Tantei-san, I’m flattered, really, but take me out for dinner first if you want to see me undressed so badly.”
Saguru turns off his pistol's safety with a sharp click and points it at Kuroba. He keeps his finger off the trigger. (He can’t set it off accidentally.) “Take off your cape and jacket.”
Kuroba lowers his hand, as well as his voice. “You know, I thought I would be more prepared for this.”
“I imagine it would be difficult to prepare for this kind of situation.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
Saguru takes another deep breath. (Forced calm.) “Don’t make me say it a third time.”
“How rude of me, ignoring your request.” (Sarcasm?) Kuroba reaches up to the clasps on his shoulders, undoing his cape. (His escape route.) The cape falls to the ground, too heavy to flutter gracefully. (Too many contraptions hidden in it.) His jacket, much the same. Without prompting, he removes his hat with a flourish and tosses it to the ground as well. (Saguru forgot to tell him to take it off.)
Saguru stares at the discarded clothing a while longer than he should, but he keeps his aim (hands) steady.
“Well?” Kuroba asks. “Is that it?”
Saguru comes back to himself, fixing his eyes back on Kuroba. “Get on your knees.”
He does so, raising his arms in surrender and carefully lowering himself to the floor.
“Is anyone watching?” Kuroba asks. “It would be a shame if you kill me without witnesses.” He keeps up the voice, the act, even as he flinches when Saguru presses the gun to the back of his head.
“I’m sure there are.” Saguru’s eyes shift to the roof of the building on his left, only risking a quick glance through the fence that borders the roof they’re on before he focuses on Kuroba again.
“You could go to jail for this. Your father can only do so much.”
“Then I won’t get caught.”
Kuroba laughs, but his voice wavers. (Fear.) “Easier said than done, you know.”
“I’m aware.”
“You can still walk away.” Kuroba drops Kid’s signature lilt. (Serious, worried.) “You don’t have to go through with this.”
Saguru squeezes his hand around the gun's handle. Theoretically, he can. (He can’t.) “Hands behind your head,” Saguru orders. “Are you ready?”
Kuroba complies without any resistance. “So kind, giving me time to prepare for my death.”
“You’ll only get to do it once, after all.” Saguru puts his finger on the trigger, and waits.
Kuroba takes a deep breath. It hitches in his throat at the end, and he lets it out even slower. “Okay.”
“...Goodbye, Kuroba.”
A door slams open behind him, but Saguru doesn’t let it distract him. He can’t lose his focus now, but he nearly does when he hears Nakamori scream “HAKUBA--!” as he pulls the trigger.
/
A gunshot goes off just as an explosion of smoke covers the roof. Ginzou is left coughing and trying to wave it away. The smoke clears quickly with the wind, still more slow than Ginzou would like until he can finally take in the scene.
Kid is lying in a heap on the ground, a few feet away from Hakuba, like he’d tried to run when he set off the smoke.
But he didn’t run fast enough. Blood is rapidly pooling beneath him. Ginzou shoves past Hakuba, but he knows before he approaches that it’s too late.
He can’t see the bullet’s entry point in the mess of dark hair, but the exit wound on Kid’s face, covering half his brow, gaping and bleeding freely...
Ginzou feels sick. Just the fact that it’s Kid, Kid is dead, is enough to shake him. But even more than that, Kid is wearing a mask. Kaito’s face. Ginzou can’t look at that. He kneels down without thinking and grabs at Kid’s cheek, expecting, wanting, desperately hoping for a mask to peel away.
There is none.
Not even a smear of makeup comes off on his hand.
“Kaito,” he chokes. “No-- God, Kaito--!” This can’t be him. This has to be a trick, the cruelest that Kid has ever played, but he would take every dirty trick up Kid’s sleeve over this.
“Nakamori-ke--”
“Explain yourself,” Ginzou growls. He stands, storms over to Hakuba, and grabs his collar, pulling Hakuba down to eye level. “Explain yourself!”
“I thought you were--” Hakuba has the gall to look afraid, upset. “You were supposed to still be downstairs with--”
“You shot him!” Ginzou yells. He shoves, slamming Hakuba against the fence around the roof. “You fucking killed him!”
“I-- I’m sorry.”
“SORRY WON’T BRING KAITO BACK.”
“It won’t.” Hakuba doesn’t struggle, or yell back, or try to defend himself. His voice wavers, and that’s fucking it. “I’m sorry.”
“Kaito is-- FUCK!”
Hakuba doesn’t say anything. Ginzou doesn’t let go. He doesn’t properly hear it when one of his men shows up on the roof and calls for backup from the rest of the task force.
Twenty years. His whole career. His whole life, and it’s Kaito.
And Kaito is dead.
He doesn’t know how he’s going to tell Aoko.
/
Kaito isn’t Kudou. If he’s faking his death to get away from the Black Organization, he’s going to make sure he’s well and truly dead. None of this calling friends and family twice a week bullshit where he makes half-assed excuses for why he won’t come home.
Kaito won’t tell Jii or any of Kaitou Kid’s contacts except Kanna that he’s alive. But she was unavoidable, he needed someone with ties in the medical field to confirm the dummy body as a real actual dead person. But now that her job is over, he won’t be contacting her anymore unless it’s a major emergency. He won’t contact Kudou, or Hattori, or Akako. And he won’t contact Aoko, as much as that hurts. And she’ll be hurting worse than he is, he knows, so he shouldn’t be complaining. At least he’ll be gone, he won’t have to see her break down over him. He won’t tell Ginzou either, even though that means Hakuba--
Hakuba figured out what Kaito was planning, and offered to help. They only did this to make sure Spider saw someone kill him. It’s too unlikely for Kaitou Kid to slip off a roof and fall to his death, he isn’t sure they would believe it-- but a bullet to the head is indisputable. Hakuba is known as Kid’s rival, and he’s generally perceived as heartless. The Black Org shouldn’t have a problem believing Hakuba finally snapped and had enough of Kid’s bullshit. They made Hakuba a solid alibi, Snake would be a witness, and Hakuba would leave the scene with the task force and civilians none the wiser.
Hakuba wasn’t supposed to get caught. Dammit.
There’s no way Ginzou will let him off the hook. Not for killing Kid.
Not for killing Kaito.
He really hopes Hakuba’s dad won’t let anything too bad happen happen to him.
But if Hakuba does end up in prison, or... well. Kaito can break him out. Maybe fake his death too, so no one will look for him. Suicide? Or maybe assault from a Kid fan. He’s already got over a dozen options running through his head-- he tucks them in the back of his mind for later. If it does come to that, well, Kaito won’t object to having Hakuba with him through this. It’s gonna be lonely by himself.
But that’s for later.
Now, Kaito is in a public bathroom of the museum where he performed his last and likely final heist. He puts on light makeup-- simple, less than five minutes, enough to change up his face and make him look more feminine. Just that much and a wig makes Kaito pretty much unrecognizable-- a little bit of contour goes a long way. He won’t make it overly complicated. He’s gonna be wearing this face for the foreseeable future after all, he doesn’t wanna be caked in makeup and masks for the entirety of it.
Now, Kaito is a 21 year old woman named Sugimoto Hana-- a freeter who’s recently moved to Tokyo from Yokohama. Choosing a pun or a clever in-joke for his new name was tempting, but in the end he went for safety and picked something at random.
Now, Kaito pulls a pale pink lipstick out of his purse and applies it slowly, drawing the action out longer than necessary, and stares at his new face.
Now, Kaito will keep an eye on Hakuba’s situation, and he won’t get involved with anyone he knows beyond that. He’ll plan-- is already making plans-- to get his revenge against his father’s killers, this time from behind the scenes. He'll keep searching for Pandora, this time discreetly. He'll be a thief and not a magician, this time. No one will even know that he's taking gems and replacing them just as fast. All he needs is a quick look at them, after all.
Now, Kaito is on the run.