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Chapter Text

Kaito stared at the child claiming to have been a famous detective from Beika that had constantly been in the news , Kudo Shinichi.

Don’t get him wrong, Kaito could see the resemblance, especially without the glasses, but still . Getting shrunk? By a drug meant to act as a poison??

Sounds a little too much like the plot of an anime.

“Kaito-botchama, it took me hours to believe him, but he gave me some irrefutable evidence. Please just listen to him .”

He was in Jii-chan’s bar after having been invited. Jii-chan was saying this kid was telling the truth .

“Jii-chan, I don’t mean to be rude, but are you 100% sure that you haven’t hit that old age where people start going senile?”

Jii-chan looked at him, dead tired. Had this brat kept him up all night or something?

The child smiled a very angry smile and ground out, “I know so many more things about you than you want me to, Kuroba-kun, and I had Jii-san bring you here for a reason . If you wish to know it then I suggest you get over your disbelief so we can move onto things that are weirder than this .”

“No offense, but I’m pretty sure that the whole poison shrinking you into a child after you stupidly followed two suspicious men in an amusement park sounds more like the plot of an anime.”

“Yeah well, I think you should start saying that about what your life is going to become when you finally wrap your head around it.”

Kaito and the brat had a glaring contest. 

Jii poured himself a glass of bourbon from his bar.

Then he started drinking what was left in the bottle.

Kaito remembers how it all started and ended for him.

It was a normal Friday, and had just hit lunch-time. Aoko and him were heading out of the classroom when Akako came out, saw the two of them, and started speed walking over.

“Akako-chan?” Aoko had been talking to him about the latest notice from KID. It said he was taking a week off from doing heists since the last one was ‘less than well planned on my part.’

It made no sense, especially since the guy had managed to get away and go through with setting up something without anyone noticing, but he probably got his assistant to help out or something.

Anyways, that’s not too important. The important part is that Akako just grabbed his arm and started dragging him back, towards the stairs.

“Oi, Akako, what’s the matter!?” Kaito tried to yank his arm away but she just kept walking.

“I need to - stop that right this instant Kuroba Kaito - tell you something important!” Kaito stopped yanking his arm with a frown and went with her. 

The guy glaring at him from across the hallway didn’t make him any happier.

“Why can’t you tell it to me in the classroom?”

“People are in there, and this prophecy is something I highly doubt you’d want Hakuba-kun to hear.”

“ Why? ”

She didn’t tell him anything more until they got to the roof.

There, she let go of him, made sure the door was closed, no one else was there, and then turned to him.

A bit excessive, but okay?

“So? What do you want?”

“Kuroba-kun, you need to hear me out. Last night, Lucifer told me, ‘ The devil in white shall make a mistake, and once the monocle falls, the destined devil shall fulfill his true path. ’ You must be careful.”

“Akako… Are you seriously trying to become some jerk-of-a-criminal’s accomplice or something? I know the ‘devil in white’ refers to KID, who I am not , since the first heist I attended said the prophecy of a ‘rival from the east’! But any-who, I don’t care if he makes a mistake, it just means he won’t be able to steal anything.”

Akako twitched. “Kuroba-kun, I am trying to help you! When I asked my mirror about it, you showed up !”

“I get you’re a witch, but seriously, most of your prophecies didn’t even come to fruition! That rival from the east didn’t even show up at the clock tower heist!”

Akako looked like she wanted to scream at him but held back. “Fine then. I am simply the messenger; it is not my business whether or not you listen to me.”

Akako stormed off the roof, and the worst part is that it seemed to be just the beginning of his issues.

KID had set his temporary hiatus ending to be at the very least in another week since, ‘something came up on short notice.’

“‘Something came up on short notice’ my ass. What’s holding you back now ?”

Kaito set down his phone and wandered away to find something else to do (maybe make a new recipe? He hadn’t tried to make a crêpe yet.) when his phone buzzed again, and he bolted on over. He knew leaving his phone for even a second would be pointless.

When he saw the number texting him, his jaw dropped.

“Jii-chan!?” 

Quickly opening the phone and cursing his fingers for going shaky, Kaito read the text once, twice, three times over before absorbing what the contents even were.

Hello, Kaito-botchama. I know I haven’t spoken to your family for years, but I’ve missed you and Oku-sama and finally decided to reach out. If you want, you could come over to the Blue Parrot and we could catch up?

–Jii Konosuke

Even though he wouldn’t usually say so, Kaito had missed talking to Jii-chan. The man, while old, was caring and fun (when he let Kaito cause chaos, at least), and he really missed that.

Future Kaito would regret texting him back instead of making a crêpe. One filled with chocolate might have, no, would have been better than meeting the mini-demon.

Kaito had asked how long Jii-chan thought it would take, and what time Kaito should head over, and was told that if Kaito was good to arrive around 5 at the Blue Parrot, Jii-chan would close up early. 

He also estimated the meet would last past dinner so he would be supplying that too.

Kaito sent an affirmative and texted Aoko that he would be having dinner with Jii-chan tonight, before going to his room to finish changing out of his pajamas.

After all, he didn’t expect to have plans. Why get dressed up on a weekend when you’ll just be at home all day?

Kaito had pushed open the door to the Blue Parrot, and Jii-chan had greeted him warmly. For dinner, the two simply spent time catching up, and discussing where Kaito’s mom had gone next.

Then, it went to shit. When Jii-chan said those damning words.

“Kaito-bocchama, I feel bad about this, but I didn’t just reach out to you to ask you about how you’ve been.”

Kaito blinked at this. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I have someone who’s got both a confession and a request to make, but only after some background information…”

“This is sounding more creepy by the minute.”

“Yeah, Jii-san, I get that you feel bad but beating around the bush helps no one.” The high-pitched voice of a child sounds directly beside Kaito’s left ear.

He definitely shrieked and threw himself away from the child who stood on a stool beside Kaito that wasn’t there before. He’s man enough to admit that, at least, but still. Very scary.

The child was short, looked to be 6 or 7. He had oversized glasses and a semi-formal fashion sense. His hair was neatly styled with two cowlicks, and if he was maybe 10 years older, would look like a more put-together version of Kaito.

“ QUI EST LA MERDE QUE?! ”

“Ne jurez pas français et supposez que je ne peux pas vous comprendre.”

This brat was giving Kaito the creeps.

Also who the hell learns French that young?

So yeah, that’s how Kaito got into a glaring contest with a child while Jii-chan got to digging himself an early grave by destroying his liver.

“Okay, so the real question is, br-”

“ Stop calling me brat or I will stage a murder with a fish, butcher knife, and a flower. ”

“As I was saying, brat , how the hell do you plan on proving to me that you’re Kudo Shinichi? He’s got, like, ten years on you.”

“Haven’t I mentioned before that I could recite all of the Sherlock Holmes books in English by memory?”

“Wasn’t that when he was like, fourteen?”

“I’ll just do that.”

“Cut it down to only A Study In Scarlet and start with the first chapter since I don’t wanna be here all night.”

“Okay. ‘ Chapter 1; Mr. Sherlock Holmes. IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having- ’”

“‘ He was very late in- ’”

“OKAY! I GET IT YOU’RE KUDO SHINICHI!”

“Oh, come on! We’ve only completed less than 33% of the book!”

Kaito’s head banged against the table. “For the love of god, I don’t want to be here all night, dozing off to Sherlock Holmes , that’s something Hakuba would do!”

“I guess you’re right, he probably would.”

“Are you children done?”

Jii-chan was apparently not a light drinker. His face wasn’t even flushed after downing a whole bottle of alcohol.

“I guess that means we delve into another mess now?” Kudo replied to Jii-chan before Kaito. It’s still so weird.

“Yes. Do you want to explain it or do you want me to do so again?”

“I think I’ll be the one to explain it?”

“This is not making me confident that what you’re going to discuss will make me happy.”

“Yeah, I think you’ll hate me after this, but we do kind of need you?”

And so with that, Kaito got a very long explanation on who Kaitou KID actually was and what the hell he had to do with it. About his father’s involvement and Pandora, Snake and the organization with code names like Gin and Vodka.

Which was. A lot. Kaito didn’t know whether to respect the brat for trying to keep him from lying to his closest friends, or hate him for keeping him in the dark about his father’s legacy that Kaito was supposed to inherit. Either it should’ve gone to him or Kudo Yusaku.

After a couple minutes, he was still conflicted, so they sent him off with a key and instructions to feel along his father’s portrait’s sides for a keyhole and turn it to the right until he heard a click.

He was also given instructions on how to fix a cassette tape, for some reason.

It would give him the last magic trick Kuroba Touichi had ever made.

Kaito cried in the hidden room for the first time in years after fixing and listening fully to his dad’s last message to him.

He knew that it would be stupid to become a theif, with him already well on his way to attempting to arrest KID, but he was supposed to be KID.

He left the room to get some water, and when he went back inside, he stared up at the board, outlining KID’s behavior from his first appearance to his return.

Minutes later, he decided to leave it up.

After a few more hours, Kaito had made up his mind.

KID would become his title, as it was always supposed to be.

“I do hate you.” The two had met up in an Ekoda located café, with Kaito ordering hot chocolate and the brat ordering an iced coffee.

Kudo stayed silent as Kaito started to rant.

“I do hate you for hiding something so big from me, something that my father wanted to be mine. I also hate that I don’t hate how you tried to keep me from lying to everyone I love about doing any criminal activity. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. You could have at least asked me if I wanted to do this!”

“But what do you think you’d answer then?”

“... No. Aoko is my best friend and I would’ve hated having to lie to her. But I would’ve liked to know that my father left a legacy for me that you stole.”

“I don’t fully understand, but you have every right to feel what you feel. However, I do need to know what your answer is now. I need to know who the character of KID will be played by until I can figure out how to become myself again.”

“You won’t take him back fully,” Kaito cut in, “Ever. I want to be the main KID from here on out. You will be the understudy for the lead in the play, the assistant. Are you willing to accept this?” Or am I going to do this myself?

The question was more of a demand than anything.

Kudo gave him a nod and finished his iced coffee. He pulled out the money from his wallet and paid for the both of them before hopping off.

“Oh, right.” He turned into his school bag and pulled out some purple box and held it out for Kaito.

At his blank look, Kudo explained. “It’s chocolate from the chocolate shop in Beika that opened recently. An apology and thank you.”

Kaito took it from his hands, and stood up and walked out.

No more words needed to be said, and as Kaito walked, he supposed he and Kudo might be able to create a friendship from this mess.

However, the fact that he knew Kaito’s favorite food was chocolate just made him more uneasy. The chocolate was good though, he’d have to guilt trip the brat into getting him more.

Are you sure you’ll be okay, Kuroba?

yeah, im just a little nervous abt this

You’ll do great. Besides, you’re not stealing anything today.

Kaito sighed and put away his phone. It was time for his first ‘heist’ after a single month of practicing, though as Kudo had said, he wouldn’t be stealing anything. The guy had taken a bunch of precautions with this, like making sure Kaito wore a mask of his own face, and letting this be a non-heist.

Kudo was also jealous that while Kaito had to practice for only a lowly 4 weeks, he apparently had to practice for a little over 2 years and still wasn’t as skilled.

The wind blew across his face and made his cape fly behind him.

With a deep breath, Kaito leaned forward until he was falling from the building’s roof.

The night’s air was chilly, and a small part of Kaito wished the fall could last forever.

Then, he snapped open the hang glider and straightened out, heading for the rooftop of Haido City Hotel.

Kaito would avenge his father. Nobody would keep him from doing that much.

It was surprisingly calm for a first ‘heist’, and no one thought he was actually Kuroba Kaito. The adrenaline rush when he hid within the police was thrilling like nothing he’d ever felt before.

And so was the next. And then the ones after that.

Hakuba Saguru stared at the purple box sitting on his desk. There were identical ones on Aoko-san’s and Akako-san’s. Underneath the purple box was a simple typed note, the paper cut evenly down to fit the words, saying ‘I’m sorry.’

He had checked under each one. All were identical down to the cut of the paper. 

Whoever had done this was methodical in it. But what would they have to apologize for? From Saguru’s knowledge, none of them had anything similar enough going on to warrant identical apologies.

Later in the morning, when Kuroba-kun had come in, Saguru had asked him directly, “Are these from you?”

While Kuroba-kun had denied it as expected, something about his face seemed… Less open.

Was this what he looked like when he really was lying? But then, why would he lie about apology chocolates?

Now, Shinichi would like to say he was a very patient person generally. That, however, would be classified as lying, which a detective ‘shouldn’t be doing’.

But as a counter argument to that, he is also a Kaitou KID, who does lie, so fuck whoever says he shouldn’t lie.

So yes, Shinichi is definitely a patient person.

He totally didn’t feel relief when he thought that he was finally able to be Kudo Shinichi again, and he didn’t feel disappointment when he turned back into Conan. Not at all .

But, all of that was very valuable, so the next chance he got, he bolted over to Jii-san’s place and demanded to be given a glass of Baijiu, just like Hattori had given him.

Kuroba, who was watching on in amusement as they had been in the middle of training him, only stared as Conan drank like he was planning a very important heist, not getting drunk.

When Conan woke up from a drunken-sleep, he was very disappointed to find that he was still Conan, and when he told the two of why the hell he’d even done that, Kuroba cackled at Conan’s luck. Jii-san just rubbed his face as he gave Conan some advil and water.

Apparently he was not only a light drinker, but also a, “Stupid drunk, I mean seriously, Kudo, you asked me if I was a mirror-person who’d escaped the mirror realm!”

Conan may or may not have dragged Kuroba’s cackling ass outside to a park with a soccer ball and started kicking at him. The excuse was also definitely not ‘agility practice’, and he had most definitely not given Kuroba a disdain for soccer.

Soccer was Kaito-niichan's favorite sport, after all!

“Heiji-niisan, are you okay?”

Heijii’s brow twitched. “I’m fine ! Stop denying it, I know you’re Kudo Shinichi!”

The brat just looked at him with confused, innocent eyes. “Heiji-niisan, how could I even be Shinichi-niichan?”

“Well…” Heiji paused. How would that even work?

Conan looked at him, pouting more as the silence dragged on. “So you’re accusing me for no reason?!” His voice wobbled like a child about to cry.

The brat brought fists up to his chest as the tears built.

“I’ll tell Nee-chan!” Hattori’s remark shot out in a panic, and to make matters worse, she walked in at that time.

“Tell me what?” She asked, and Heiji decided to roll with it.

“Well, you see–”

“ Fine, Heiji-niisan! I’ll lend you my book! ” The brat shouted before tugging Heiji away, “Just don’t tell Ran-neechan about the bug!”

“What bug?”

The silence dragged on.

“Conan-kun. What. Bug? ”

Conan turned to Heiji and mouthed, ‘You’re mean, Heiji-niisan’, and turned back to Nee-chan.

“I found a bug in here and accidentally squished it…”

“Oh, Conan-kun, that’s okay!”

“But I squished it on the carpet and hid it under the chair…”

“…So that’s what that green stain was from?”

Conan, no, Kudo silently nodded.

After that trainwreck, Heiji brought Kudo out for some ice cream to explain the whole thing.

It was really creepy seeing how fast Kudo swapped between ‘innocent child’ and ‘teenage detective’.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Ekoda when Edogawa Conan, formerly known as Kudo Shinichi, barged into a bar where a magician was picking a lock.

“Hattori Heiji knows I’m Kudo Shinichi and is cool with it.”

The lockpicks dropped to the ground.

“Kudo, what the fuck ?!”

So anyways, soon enough, Kaito and Kudo had become friends, and when they found out about the temporary antidotes (accidentally, via Hattori Heiji, who was an even bigger mess as ‘Kudo’s greatest rival’, appointed by himself), they were able to plan an alibi for the not-child.

And when Haibara Ai joined in, they were able to set the plan in motion.

(Kudo had said that the little lady had given him a knowing look when he said he was heading to a KID heist. He swears up and down, to this day, that ‘ Haibara knows, Kaito– Don’t laugh at me, this is serious! ’)

The way they built Kudo’s alibi was by KID conveniently holding a heist when Kudo had taken a temporary antidote, and Kudo ‘giving in’ to Suzuki-san’s nagging on going to a KID heist.

Kaito’s alibi was actually created for Hakuba, first. Whether or not Hakuba believes it is up for debate (Though Kaito’s money is on Hakuba being too-suspicious of a bastard. Kudo thinks Hakuba should know better).

The alibi was made by Akako, of all people, but the run in with Spider later made the whole thing worse. He was able to expect the actions and trickery, of course, but it was still a bone-chilling experience.

He never wants to do that again.

And all the times Kudo almost dies helps very little for his nerves. He needs his more experienced yet younger assistant to complain to, after all! That tiny brat was all heart and no brains!

(Kaito very calmly ignores all the times Kudo tells him to “Stop calling me a goddamn brat, I act ten years older than you!” 

“That’s what brats do, though!”

“I hope you know that my fish-knife-flower idea has been stewing in my head for months now. I could kill you and get away scot free with all my new cases. And with me being in control of some of the smartest detectives in the country along with actually being behind one of the idiots, you’d be lucky to have the goddamn case closed with a suspect arrested. ”

Kaito mostly kept the brat comments in his head after that.)

Chapter Text

“Hey, Sonoko, since it was dark, is it possible you could have actually bitten your attacker on the leg instead?”

“I would love to say I'm confident I got it right, but...”

“Alright, Michiwaki-san, move your pants up.”

“...No.”

“Fuck, you are the killer, aren’t you?”

The police were called as Ran beat his ass (later followed by the later named Makoto), and they promptly arrested him and got the evidence.

Case closed.

Chapter Text

“Shinichi?” Ran called across the room, eyes landing on a familiar cowlick through the crowd. She hadn’t expected to see him here , at a KID heist, and yet…

Sonoko stopped too, seeing where she was looking. “What’s the detective geek doing here? I thought he said he didn’t care about KID.”

“I don’t know, but I am planning on finding out.” Ran muttered before dragging Sonoko over to the detective on the other side of the room. Along the way they passed by Kuroba-kun, who they waved at.

Shinichi did not know what Ran was on a mission to kill, but he was glad that, for once, it wasn’t him, due to the fact that she waved at him and he was currently Kuroba-kun.

But that did get him a little curious, so he peeked over to where Ran was stalking off to. In doing so, he saw… himself?

Well, Shinichi’s pretty sure he’s Shinichi, so who…?

Wait, isn’t Kuroba-kun missing? And isn’t this heist also right up his alley?

Shinichi felt his heart sink as he saw Ran get even closer to Kuroba-kun. Good it wasn’t him, sure, but he wouldn’t wish Ran’s wrath upon anyone.

Especially not Kuroba-kun, who just unwittingly signed his death certificate by how he came as Shinichi.

But KID really couldn’t interfere now , not when the heist was about to start. Kuroba-kun could survive.

Probably.

…

Hopefully.

With one last silent sigh, KID excused himself from the conversation flawlessly.

Kaito felt super smart for his decision to go as Kudo. He gets to throw KID off his game and freshen up his disguise skills!

The guy would forgive him, probably. He did mention how Mouri-chan and Sonoko-chan have been hounding him to try his hand at catching KID and all. Maybe if all goes well, Kaito would come as Kudo again!

The sound of people moving around got louder, and he spotted someone who looked a whole lot like Kudo walking off to the bathroom, however… some things were off.

The fair, the facial structure, the hair, the look on the face… it all screamed ‘Kaito’, not ‘Kudo’.

Except… wait, is that supposed to be Kaito?

But, Kaito’s Kaito, not that person… right?

Holy shit, is that KID?!

Kaito was just about chase after him (not obviously, of course, that would make KID disappear) when Mouri-chan appeared behind him, grabbing his arm tight enough to bruise.

“So, Shinichi, what brings you to a KID heist when you’ve been saying your rather die than come to one?”

Shit, okay, how do I deal with this????

“Um, Mouri-chan, I hate to ruin the fun, but I may or may not be Kuroba Kaito? Not Kudo Shinichi?”

“And what makes you think I’ll believe that? ”

Kaito did a quick run through on all the information he has on Kudo Shinichi before snapping his fingers on the arm Mouri-chan wasn’t almost breaking. Out popped a yellow rose from his sleeve. Kudo wasn’t a magician after all!

Mouri-chan blinked as he held it out to her. Then she gasped and rapidly apologized, quickly letting go of his arm as she gave several quick bows.

“It’s alright, it’s alright! I had come as him to try and throw KID off his game, but it seems that was a pretty pointless endeavor, eh?”

“Y-yeah… wait a damn minute. Sonoko, didn’t we see another Kuroba-kun talking to some people?”

Sonoko-chan gasped. “Oh shit, we did! We even waved to him!”

“I knew it! I saw him heading towards the bathrooms and was about to follow him before, well…” Kaito scratched the back of his head as he gestured to his arm.

“Noooo, Ran, I didn’t get a chance to talk to him! And that was totally KID!”

“There’s really no point in going to find him, the heist is about to start.”

“Aw, man!” Sonoko-chan pouted, but shoved her way through the crowd in order to get closer to the heist target.

Kaito wasn’t going to use Kudo as a disguise at a KID heist, that was for sure.

(Though, he wasn’t going to exclude parties…

Kudo would probably thank him for going instead, right?)

Chapter Text

“Shinichi-botchama, we’ll probably have to get someone else to be KID when you’re… like that . It could be either me or Kaito-botchama.”

Shinichi stared up at Jii-san with an innocent look. “Or,” Shinichi said, closing his eyes in a very calm fashion, “I stay KID and make the task force as a whole gain an ulcer.”

“Shinichi-botchama, they’re not going to believe that you’re Kaitou KID, a well known supposedly-adult man.”

“Well then it’ll be their fault when they lose the jewel.”

“Kaitou KID’s sent out a new notice!” One of Ginzou’s underlings barged into the room, and Ginzou shot up from his seat.

“What does it say?!”

“‘Tonight, under the full moon’s light, I shall borrow the Child’s Curse at 23:55. -Kaitou KID’.”

With a nod, Ginzou yelled to the other people in the room. “Alright! Let’s catch that bastard!”

The officer ran off with a salute, and soon enough, the station was in chaos as everyone ran to prepare.

Ginzou watched as his men got everything ready.The crowd was wild, so their numbers had to be stretched somewhat thin to accommodate for holding the crowd back, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if someone slipped through.

Like the brat in a KID costume did just now.

Ginzou sighed before walking over to him, bellowing, “Oi, brat, go back behind the police line!”

“But Nakamori-keibu, the heist is starting?”

Ginzou checked the time on his watch and frowned. “Then that’s all the more reason for you to go back!”

“Actually, Nakamori-keibu,” another voice joined in, this time from Hakuba-kun, said, “The heist should have started a minute and 23.08 seconds ago.”

“Then where the hell is he?” Ginzou grumbled, moving to scoop up the child.

The child ducked under his arm and hopped way higher than any child should be able to, a top the case.

“H-hey, get down from there! That’s dangerous!”

The kid didn’t listen, and mimed sticking earplugs in his ears.

“Kid, you need to get down from there! If the glass breaks-“ Hakuba-kun tried.

“It hasn’t broken for me before, and I was way heavier then.” The stupid brat kept talking like he was KID.

“Why do you keep talking like you’ve been KID?!”

The child finally looked up at that while crouching on the case, looking much older than his apparent age, making Ginzou pause. A moment of silence as the kid considered Ginzou.

Then, with a lopsided KID grin, “Now, who says I can’t be? I am the ‘Miracle Magician’, after all.” the child moved his hand through the case’s glass, taking the jewel out without much fanfare.

The room felt like it paused before a flurry of officers stumbled to the case after Ginzou roared, “ Get him! ”

The child, KID, cackled with glee as a smoke bomb was released while the crowd freaked out.

“Shinichi-botchama, look at what you’ve caused!”

Jii-san motioned towards the TV, where a paused video of the police force tripping over itself as a child gleefully ran, holding up the Child’s Curse in his hand.

“I don’t know why you’re making it sound like a bad thing.”

Jii-san threw his hands up, walking away in frustration.

Shinichi turned his head to the TV, looking at the picture once more while sipping some iced coffee. They should’ve chosen a better angle. Maybe the cameras for the newspapers caught the view from the front.

Chapter Text

KID was muttering. While that in of itself wasn’t unusual, the fact that two very glittery and very pissed off detectives (no matter how much one part denied it) were on his tail and rapidly gaining made his muttering a bit… different from the norm.

“ Fuckshitfuckshitfuckshitfuck–“

Him only paying attention to the mantra in his head ( Get to the roof get to the roof -) made him not notice the weird net trap set up by Tantei-kun.

“OH GOD DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!”

Maybe KID was acting a little uncharacteristic, but so be it! Nothing has gone right for this heist. He’s been struggling to separate KID from Shinichi, Hakuba-kun and Kuroba-kun had finally gotten Nakamori-keibu to take their advice, and now the two had trapped him in a classic net trap he should’ve seen coming miles away.

He was highly tempted to just… pass out for the next indefinite amount of time.

Hakuba-kun rounded the corner with Kuroba-kun at his heels.

“I can’t believe that actually worked. Also, I never thought I’d hear you swear, KID.” Kuroba-kun grinned madly as he slowed his pace while walking towards Shi-KID, fuck, while silently laughing.

“And I never thought I’d swear aloud, yet here we are,” Shinichi said sarcastically before muttering another curse, but both teens ignored him.

“Neither can I.” Hakuba-kun walked over, very surprised. They both paused in front of him before Hakuba-kun made a sweeping gesture in KID’s general direction. “Why don’t you do the honors of unmasking him?”

“Oh how generous of you, Hakuba!”

Kuroba-kun reached over and grabbed the edge of Shinic- KID ’s mask and yanked, sending it off along with his hat and monocle, somehow. Shinichi just stared at the two as both their motions faltered. He had been sawing away at the net under him for a hot minute, and they were still. Staring.

“Are… Are you two good?”

“…Maybe it’s just another mask under it?”

“Why the hell would KID wear a second mask?”

“Maybe because I’m fucking insane?”

“You may be fucking insane but… I can’t find a way for you to have been able to disguise yourself as me twice. Maybe it’s makeup?”

Shinichi paused mentally. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t really brushed his hair out, meaning his hair looked like Kuroba-kun’s, and they also hadn’t, for some reason, come to the conclusion he was Kudo Shinichi on a bad hair day.

Shinichi stayed silent for a few more seconds as Hakuba-kun and Kuroba-kun looked at him before saying, “I am either going to die of laughter or second-hand embarrassment, which is totally fine,” before snatching his hat and monocle and dropping from the now broken net.

The two squawked as they realized he was getting away, but it was far too late for either to do much about it.

Kaito sighed as he put his head in his hands. It was Sunday, the day after the heist, and he still couldn’t figure out how KID did it.

Hakuba was over too, adding conspiracies to his board, when Kaito sat up.

“Wait, Hakuba, what if it was Kudo?”

Hakuba paused for a moment before laughing. “Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious!” Kaito totally didn’t pout, “We look almost like identical twins! And he seemed shocked we didn’t recognize him!”

“We’ll head over to Kudo-kun’s house, okay? We’ll ask him there.”

So they went.

As soon as Kudo opened the door, Kaito blurted out, “Are you, by chance, Kaitou KID?”

Kudo stared blankly at them before busting out laughing.

After he laughed for a solid minute, wiping tears from his eyes, he said, “You are hilarious.”

“I’m not joking.”

His laughter drifted, and he lost his smile. “… Get the fuck out.”

That was rude. Kaito didn’t deserve to have the door slammed on him.

“I told you so.”

“Shut up, Hakuba. Anyone would deny it.”

“But would everyone laugh?”

“…”