“Idon’t talk about it casually,” it wasn’t his fault certain people were able to figure out a secret he was trying so hard to keep hidden. Besides, comparing ‘magic’ and science was impossible because ONE DIDN’T EXIST.
He didn’t care what the police saw — he needed to see this magic for himself before he would even begin to consider that it might be possible. And even then, he’d write it off as an elaborate trick.
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Well, if you had to tell me while I was bigger that people could shrink into kids, and that it’s happened to you, and I didn’t believe you whatsoever, but no real proof exists for you at the time to try and convince me, would you just let it go? Jeeze, you should feel lucky shrinking is the only really weird thing you’ve had to deal with… Just for a few words from my experiences: Robots, a pirate, a witch, and a certain chibified detective who kicks soccer balls from hell that shoot out sparks when he kicks them… “
“You’re crazy, you know that?” He had hoped that today would be a normal day. He had failed to stumble across any cases, though that didn’t seem to include nutcases.
Sighing and slipping his hands under his glasses, Conan rubbed roughly at his eyes. “There is no much thing as magic, or voodoo, or witches. Unless you’re trying to tell me that being shrunken down has made you think like a kid.”
“Oh yes, magic can’t exist, and yet you can casually talk about people being shrunk into kids to begin with… I don’t think many people would be picky about which stories they’d be calling crazy for either of them…”
The chibi thief paused for a moment, slight pout forming, but then he blinked and a knowing smile soon returned.
“…And even if I can’t completely prove it offhand, the police were around when I started bleeding from the head at random… and there were quite a few who saw a particular time ‘Kid’ flew away on a broomstick, including Hakuba. And before you say strings, it went outdoors to. Right across the sky. No helicopters around either.”
“Try me,” it wasn’t as if he could beat the whole ‘I was given a pill and forced to shrink’ thing. Oh, but he was wrong. There was an even worse answer than that, and one that took Conan completely by surprised. Twitching and clenching his fists, he felt his aggravation flare.
“Idiot, magic isn’t real!”
“You aren’t the one who’s been on the bad side of a witch using voodoo to give you internal bleeding and trapped you in a magic circle.”
Oh yes, just say that so casually, totally believable. Though to the magician’s credit, nothing in his tone is saying he was joking, and he seems to be completely serious about the absurd response.
The confetti went unnoticed because there was something very wrong with what Conan was seeing in front of him. Kaitou KID was not an actual child, yet there he was — almost the same height and sporting the same annoying attitude.
“No. . . Maybe,” he shook his head and scowled, “but why are you a kid?”
“I’ve always been a Kid, technically.” So much tease. “But an actual explanation would be… a little difficult to give…”
Kaito shrugged, looking off to the side a moment before a wide grin spread across his face.
“I’m a magician, so clearly it’s a work of magic~”
Conan only continued to give him a side-ways glance, the tip of his finger scratching at his cheek.
It was obvious that the kid knew him and was expecting to be recognized, but it took the pint-sized detective a moment to gather the clues given to him. Top hat, doves, looks like him. Hmm. . .
Wait. . .
“K—Kaitou KID————?!”
“Ding ding ding~ Let’s give the guy a round of applause~”
Kaito gave a few claps before spreading his hands and letting some confetti fly. Might not be able to carry quite as much like this, but at least he could still do basic tricks.
“Would you rather I’d worn the suit I got you to wear instead? Maybe that would have helped the meitantei figure it out sooner.”
The magician paused, blinking before sighing, then making a circle with his thumb and pointer finger to hold over his right eye.
“I’d pull out a hat and doves, but the top hat’s a bit big now, and the birds are still confused… and I’d been half thinking you might be able to catch on with the nickname, at least. And the fact that I look a bit like you. Jeeze, tantei-kun, I thought you had better intuition than that.”
“Sera Masumi. You know, you’re pretty smart if you got my gender right!” It wasn’t every day that Sera met someone who could get it right first try. Besides, Kuro seemed to have paused a bit before giving his name. He could have just been nervous but…
“What are you doing out here alone?”
Well, of course he’s not going to call her a boy again, considering that’s what had gotten him in trouble last time… Okay, so it might not have been the smartest to say right now, but he can pass it off as just getting a lucky guess or being smart. So he smiles happily at the compliment and his head tilts slightly at the question.
“I was just on my way to the park to meet up with some of my friends. We were planning on hanging out today, and I’m already a bit late…” If there was one thing the thief’s gotten used to coming up with quickly, it would be an excuse, further plans for what he could say being drawn up as he spoke.
“Thanks!” She had to admit, the child seemed a bit familiar, but she couldn’t place where she could have seen him before. Then again, he looked somewhat like Conan. Maybe that was it?
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“You’re welcome, oneesan,” he said, smiling before it faltered a little.
…Right… name… umm…
Obviously he can’t just use his own. That’d be confusing when he returned to normal. …But he hadn’t considered a name yet. Hmm…
A slight pause passed before he grinned again and slipped his arms casually behind his head.
“Maybe if I turn here…no?” Sera had managed to get lost in an unfamiliar part of Tokyo. As nice as the area was, she had other things to do and needed to find a bus stop. She could ask for directions, but the only other person around seemed to be a young boy.
‘Worth a shot’ Sera shrugged as she approached the child.
“Hey, do you know where the bus stop is?”
Kaito looked around, arms crossed over his chest as he tried to figure out what he could do right now. He’d called Aoko to let her know he’d be working on something with Jii for a while, so he didn’t want to draw attention by going home where she might notice he wasn’t actually out…
A vaguely familiar voice drew him from his musings about just staying at the park for a couple of hours or so to look up at the person coming near. Then he blinked once, twice, and his eyes widened slightly.
…Think he’s feeling a phantom pain from the time at that heist, now…
…But wait, he’s a kid. Not the Kid. It was doubtful anything would happen now, so the magician simply smiled disarmingly, even as he took a step back to face her.
“Yeah, it’s just a couple of streets down and to the right. There’s a tree next to it, so it’s sometimes hard to see if you don’t know where it is.”
“I don’t even know how this thing moves.” Kaito’s eyes widened as a tentacle twitched. Every sensation from the lower half of his body was strange and slightly alarming.
“Let me just-” He tried to sit up straight and fell over. “This is stupid,” he groaned.
Okay. One more try, but staying propped up on an arm this time.
“I think I might be able to get it from here. Thanks.” He cupped some water in his free hand and poured it over his lower half. Just that little bit made him feel better, and he inched even closer to the tub.
Lift it up, and twist.
At least the tentacles were in the water now, even though getting the rest of his lower half in the water seemed too difficult to attempt. Kaito flopped back down and tried to enjoy the feel of the water.
That was splashing. He was going to have to learn to control those better, but at least the rest of him was getting moist too.
“Where did you get the water from?”
The smaller Kaito stayed nearby, leaning against a wall, though he wasn’t looking completely at his other self. A couple of glances, but he simply looked off to the side most of the time.
“From the bathhouse close by. It was the quickest thing I could think of, unless we just wanted to try buying some water to throw on you until we could get home or to a pond or something.”
A shrunken thief is still a thief, but it’s not as though he doesn’t plan on returning it. …When they’re done using it and after it’s been cleaned… Lucky it was after closing, or it’d be a bit harder to explain what he needed the water for.
Moonlight Archive 