There were still 15 minutes until the bus showed up, so maybe it was a good idea to continue talking to Kuro for now.
“Is it okay if I follow you to the park? I wouldn’t mind meeting your friends!” Okay, maybe she was curious about Kuro as well. The boy had seemed lost at first, but suddenly had to meet with friends? This was a bit odd.
No, it wasn’t okay… But Kaito already suspected she’d join him, since she’d seemed interested in what he was up to. Oh, well, he’s got a plan. Not sure how well it might work, but… guess he’ll see.
“Ah… Well, I don’t mind… But are you sure, oneesan? Wouldn’t it be bad if you missed your bus?”
“Ya think imma le’ a lil’ kid walk home by themselves this late a’ nigh’?” Hattori raised an eyebrow. “An’ wha’ if ya go’ kidnapped, hmmm? Do ya think if ya wen’ missin’ I’d be able ta live with myself?” Hattori shook his head. “I’ll walk ya home an’ make sure ya ge’ there safely, alrigh’?”
He did have to hesitate… but the other just escorted him, that should be fine…
“Umm… Sure.” Kaito rolled up his pants as well he could before standing. The sleeves he just pulled back enough to use his hands to reach down for the hat and monocle, grinning. “Though, for all I know, you might be someone who does that yourself.”
Not entirely serious, since the man just seemed worried about him, but it’s not as though his guard is completely down either. Maneuvering might be difficult right now, but he does still have all of his gear with him.
“There a reason you’re out walking around right now?”
“Black Phantom, at your service~” Phantom said bowing deep
Phantom, huh. Why was he not surprised… Really, why did the outfit seem to be so popular lately? And he’s sure there’s a better name to go with the outfit than just ‘black’… Kaito just smiled, though, keeping the act up and the condescending thoughts to himself.
“Hey, we share the same colour! My names Kuro. Nice to meet you, Phantom-san~”
The little magician paused for a moment, looking up at the other and glancing over the suit.
“But why’re you dressed like that? You look like a dark version of Kaitou Kid.”
“I was repaired. It was not easy, said the one to fix me, but I was repaired. This should not be a surprise. Humans repair all the time. Themselves, and other things. Like robots.”
Steps forward, only to pitch onto his ‘face’. Balance is silly. Robo pushes himself back up with only a scratch on his face, which immediately begins to ‘heal’ over.
Kaito watched the other, still wary. Preeeetty sure that, regardless of it being possible, someone coming along and rebuilding a machine that had taken so much trouble to stop the first time would never not be a surprise.
The robot falling onto his face hadn’t exactly been expected either, if the wince Kaito made indicated anything. And the staring at the scratch like he hadn’t received countless others before.
“…Humans can only ‘repair’ themselves to a relatively small degree, and none of us would be able to survive anything like what happened to you. You shouldn’t have survived what happened to you. And your face didn’t even come close to ‘repairing’ itself so quickly last time… …Just who ‘fixed’ you?”
There was no getting through to this guy. He wanted to suggest that they agree to disagree, but he decided to drop the subject entirely. Instead, he reached forward and pinched at the kid’s face.
“So, how long are you stuck like this? I’m gonna guess that you don’t have the luck of being stuck like this forever.” It was an exaggeration, but it had felt like ages since he was actually Shinichi and not some temporary fix.
“Oi!”
Kaito pulled away from the pinch-y fingers, rubbing his cheek with a hand, frowning slightly. He gets enough pinched faces when he’s bigger, no need for them while he’s like this…
“I’m not really sure… Could be a few days, a week, a month… Hopefully not too long, I do have my job to perform, after all. But yeah, I don’t think it’s permanent.”
Sorry, tantei-kun. He’s not going to be joining the league of teenage chibis anytime soon, if he can help it.
“I can attempt this. Whether or not I would succeed remains unknown. You are younger than my memory banks recall. How is that possible?” Robo knelt down to get a better look. Hello.
That was definitely a casual step he took back. Not a nervous one. At all. Ignore the fact he might look paler too, but seems he really doesn’t want the other getting close at all. It might not entirely help, considering what he’d seen the other was capable of before it exploded… But he needed at least a little reassurance.
“How, I can’t really say. But if you can come back after all of that, I really don’t think anything should be a surprise anymore…”
And please don’t attempt that. If it’s all the same.
“I might be able to make it there. Just let me soak for a bit.”
If he could just get the thing into the air and find his balance, Kaito could walk on his hands to wherever he needed to go. He had just woken up too dry and uncomfortable to try it earlier. He would just sit for now though, even if it was uncomfortable to lay like this.
The water felt so nice.
“It’s not just the scaly ones for you, is it,” less of a question and more of an observation. Kaito had noticed that the younger version of himself wasn’t looking at him much. “Unless I look even weirder from a distance.” Either he just looked that strange, or there was some fear there. Though that would be quite the poker face for such a tiny body, even with all the looking away.
Kaito hummed in acknowledgement at the first part. He doesn’t mind waiting, in case his double might need help getting there. But he blinked at the next comments, glancing over and tilting his head. He hadn’t really considered that the phobia might be a bit different between alternate selves. Hmm…
“No, you look fine. Well, as well as you can look, with how things are… It’s not as bad as scales, but yeah… not the most comfortable either. Basically, I guess I just don’t like it, but it won’t make me freak out or anything…”
“A bit more clever than I’d expect from that joke, I’ll give you that. Using Kaito instead of Kaitou for the play on words… Though… it does make me wonder if I should hold a heist as a Kaitou kid as well… I’m sure the police would have a hard enough time trying to figure out if it’s real or fake after seeing how I look. Might be one of the easier heists I do~”
At least if tantei-kun didn’t show up. Or tantei-han, for that matter. They might be a little too used to small people not being what they appear…
Moonlight Archive 