If I owned the series, the Detective Conan and Magic Kaitou stories would be one.

Late. The thief was late to his own damn heist and Nakamori Ginzo, head inspector of the Kaitou Kid Task Force was worried. It was an absurd notion, one he would never admit to his men or any living human being but whenever the seconds ticked away from the Kid's scheduled notice he would begin to feel anxious. He looked around the room with mounting frustration. The rest of his men were jumpy as well but he blamed that more on pre-heist nerves (one never knew when one would fall victim to the Kid's sleeping gas or some other prank after all) and probably his own surly mood as well wasn't helping things either.

The little kid who followed that idiot Mouri didn't appear worried either. His too sharp eyes instead used the extra time to his full advantage; sweeping the scene for evidence of tampering as he prepared himself for a battle of wits and will with the thief. For all Nakamori admired intelligence of the creepy child, he none the less felt on edge around him. It was more than the fact that there was something inherently wrong about Edogawa-kun and he suspected it was due to the kid's nickname as 'the Kid Killer'. Just thinking about the ill-fitting title left a sour taste in his mouth. Whoever thought gifting a child with such a terrible name was a good idea and against such a non-violent criminal as well…

Out of everyone, it appeared only that English brat Hakuba seemed to share his agitation. The teenager fiddled with his pocket watch, popping the cover every so often as if to confirm that the scheduled time had indeed passed. He tapped his feet, muttered to himself and occasionally leaned back a little so he could look out the museum window as if he might catch a glimpse of white amid the darkness. It surprised him that of all the people here it was Hakuba who understood his worries. Nakamori had to admit that Hakuba was a damn good detective and he highly respected the young man's opinions but the kid was still new to the chase of the Kaitou Kid. He hadn't been there back in the old days, back before there were snipers at heists, when it had just been an entertaining romp between the police and the mysterious thief. Back before the Kid had sent out a notice and never showed up leaving his audience hanging for eight years.

Nakamori will never forget that heist almost ten years ago now which had started off normally enough. The notice had come in through the Task Force mail, the press had been riled up and he and his men had promised each other on the way over that this would be the night they finally brought the thief in like they always did. Everything had been going just fine up until the intended moment of the robbery when nothing happened at all and then kept on happening. He remembers waiting 5 minutes, then 10 then 30 and before he knew it, his second in command was shaking his shoulder saying that after 3 and a half hours of waiting; the Kid probably wasn't going to show.

Oh he'd been annoyed at the time, ranting and raving to his men for a good week afterwards on how thieves and their ilk should never be trusted. They'd laughed too, said the Kid had probably gotten stuck in traffic, come down with a cold or had been caught up in the rigors of his mysterious everyday life. It had been fun for a while until slowly they realized that the apology they expected and revival of the game was not forthcoming. Only when nearly two months had passed, the longest the Kid had ever gone between notices since he'd started, did they look at one another and realize that maybe they'd never see that white hat and manic grin again. Sitting at his desk, bleary-eyed with a bottle of bourbon in his hand, he'd come to understand that he'd never believed that the thief just one day would stop. It had hurt, in a strange way, as if a friend had just up and left with no note and no forwarding address. Because he had to believe that, that the thief had hung up his cape of his own free will, because the alternative was too much to bear.

He and his staff had greedily clung to the notion that everything was still well in their little world. They kept up appearances and made statements saying that they were certain that the thief would be contacting them soon enough saying that a certain gem had caught his eye. They waited and waited until finally the order from on high came down like an axe saying that the Kaitou Kid Task Force was being disbanded and everyone within it reassigned. The loss of his team was akin to losing a part of himself. They'd been through some crazy times together chasing that thrice-damned thief but losing his position had almost been worse.

He'd been chasing that white cape for almost a decade when the Task Force was eventually dismantled. He'd been twenty years old when he'd transferred into the Force, cocky and incredibly naïve on what magician thieves were capable of. He'd transferred in on request, as a rookie cop just starting out, he wasn't ready for the emotional demand of Section One and thought chasing after a non-violent thief might be just what he needed. How was he to know that a simple job would transform into a way of life? But as the Task Force was to laid to rest, he'd been shuffled through Section Two. He continued to work with robberies and forgeries but it had never been the same. Without the Kid, everything seemed so much darker.

As the years went on with agonizing slowness, each one passing with more assurance that the world had seen the last of the great Kaitou Kid, Nakamori realized somewhere along the line that he was grieving. He grieved not only for the loss of a career which had made him feel so alive but for the man he almost come to see as a friend. Heavens knows he had seen more of that cheeky grin than his own daughter most days and while he regrets that Aoko grew up without him; he knows that the Kid had needed him too. The Kid had been up to something, he was too compassionate to be running everyone in circles just for kicks. Well that couldn't have been the only reason anyway.

It used to frustrate him, clearly the Kid had been leading them on a chase to bring them to something bigger and badder than a man who gave back what he stole and Nakamori just couldn't see it. It made him feel like he failed the man he never knew by being unable to solve his greatest riddle, by being unable to save his life. Yes about halfway through the fifth year without Kid, Nakamori finally admitted to himself that most likely the thief had not stopped stealing willingly and was probably five years in the grave by this point. He was too stubborn to have been stopped any other way. It stung, he was police officer, it was his job to save people and yet he couldn't save the man it had been his mission to catch? He thinks bitterly not only on the loss of life and potential on such a wildly brilliant man but on the people he left behind. Someone as outgoing as the Kaitou Kid had to have had a large social network, even out of costume, he was sure the man couldn't thrive without it. It was thoughts like these that would pull Nakamori from his stupor and have him seek out Aoko. As he held his precious girl in his arms, he tried not to think about the thief's possible children out there who were missing their father's arms around them.

As more time passed and he grew older and wearier, the pain of the Kaitou Kid's disappearance began to hurt a little less. He still thought of the man often, was still even eight years later asked by fans and reporters what had happened to the thief. He'd always grin like he used to back in the good old days and say that the rotten bastard was just saving up for another round and that the Task Force was ready when he was. It wasn't so much denial as soothing the worries of others… not that denial didn't factor into it as well. But life had moved on and even if he didn't have the closure he felt he was owed, he just had to make do with what he had.

Ironically enough, he had initially missed the dramatic resurgence of the Kid. The rumors of yet another thief hadn't interested Nakamori at all at the time and he'd merely carried on as normal. It was only after the frightened guard had stammered out the word Kaitou Kid that Nakamori finally paid attention to the whispers that were spreading like wildfire. He'd never felt more stressed than he did in the days before this new Kid's second heist. He knew the Kaitou Kid, or at least the one he had chased, was gone and most likely dead. A copycat was the last thing they needed; there'd been plenty over the years all of which had dismally failed to come close to the original. But this one was different he could feel it, the daring and skill was close to the one he remembered. For the first time, he found himself worried for that idiot who had decided to put on that white cape was also tying on his death warrant.

But still he was there for the heist, watching as new and old members of the squad fell into place preparing for round two with the greatest thief there was. The imposter, Nakamori could tell that from the moment he saw him, came and went quickly and the Inspector followed on foot fueled by his anger. No one took the name of his thief as long as Nakamori Ginzo was around. He would catch the fool, give him the justice the real one never got and settle back into his boring life. It should have been that simple but somehow in the last eight years he had forgotten that things with the Kid were rarely that.

Kicking open the door to the roof, Nakamori gaped to see him standing there. The imposter from before was skittering out of sight but Nakamori hardly noticed him too focused was he on the specter in white before him. Tall, proud and blessedly alive was the Kaito Kid, oozing that same confidence from that smirk he remembered from years ago. It was as if nothing over the years had changed and man had stolen from time itself to stand here today. Nakamori was so stunned that he let his men, unaware with just what they were dealing with, jump on the thief. He could only stand there slacked-jawed from a distance as the Kid dodged their attacks and escaped from the building. It had been so easy for him just as it had been for the old Kid; there was no way that man was a fake. He stopped his men from giving chase like they would have in the old days because he was far too stunned to be thinking straight.

Staggering home that night while the news was cheerfully announcing the return of the Kaitou Kid, Nakamori wondered if he had been wrong all these years. He'd always thought that the Kid had been killed and yet he had appeared before them tonight as if no time had passed at all. Unlike with the imposter; he had felt something right with the man who had escaped from them just hours before. That even if the man behind the first Kid he had known was dead then this person was the rightful successor if there ever was one. By the time he reached his house, he was grinning from ear to ear as a fire that had threatened to burn out within him was reignited. The thief was back in action and so was the Kaitou Kid Task Force. There was no point in dwelling on what had happened and where this would go because for now, he had a thief to catch and that was more than enough for Nakamori.

So began the brilliant comeback of the Kaitou Kid once again captivating his audience with his daring stunts and rogue chivalry. He didn't think about how this Kid looked just a bit smaller than the one he remembered, didn't think about how his good friend Kuroba Toichi had died just weeks before the old Kid had failed to show up at that last heist and he especially didn't think about how Toichi's son Kaito had just become old enough to fit into that white suit. Some could call him pig-headed and delusional and even go so far as to say that he was looking the other way for a criminal. But when it came down to it, all he had were flimsy suspicions with nothing to back them up. And if he kept quiet about his thoughts and didn't do any extra research into the Kuroba family, it was because he remembered digging out bullets from the walls at the old heists as he wondered who would shoot at the non-violent thief. And now maybe at his son as well.

So yes the Inspector was worried for the Kaitou Kid. The bullets had returned not long after Kid had and Nakamori would watch with fear as the elusive magician grinned fearlessly at the nameless men in black who threatened him. Because maybe one day, one of those bullets will find it's mark and Nakamori will be pulling the hat and monocle from a corpse. Maybe one day a heist notice will come and go without the thief's appearance and this time the Kid really will be gone for good. Maybe he'll come home to find his daughter in tears to find that Kaito was gone and no one would ever really know what happened to him. Maybe that night would be tonight.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he could not stop the sigh of relief at that aggravating voice echoing throughout the museum. In his corner of his eye, he sees Hakuba do the same and slip his watch back into his pocket as if he hadn't been clutching it like a lifeline. Hakuba may not have been a part of the old crew but he understood more than most that the Kid was the one who needed to be protected rather than be protected from. It was a curious relationship to have with an adversary but, again, Nakamori didn't give too much thought to it. Instead he grins manically as the white clad thief finally makes his appearance on top of the jewel display and Nakamori signals his men.

"Get him!" He shouts emphatically as the typical noise and chaos of a Kaitou Kid heist launches into full swing. Across the room, something explodes in pink smoke, and an officer is reeling back from having his clothes changed to a sequined ball gown and above it all the Kid is laughing. Everything is as it should be. As the Inspector throws himself into the fray, he wishes that it could always be like this where they could play cops and robbers with worrying about mysterious gunmen and fatherless children. But he promises, in memory of the one who came before, that history would not repeat itself. And after all, Kid would be a pretty lousy magician if he did the same trick twice and if there was one thing that punk wasn't, it was lousy.

So every now and again, the thief was allowed to be a little late. As long as he showed up in the end to be a pain in Nakamori's side then he knew that everything would work out. Because if there was one thing he knew it was that as long as magicians could double as thieves in the night, he would be chasing them for all he was worth. But he would also be watching out for them so that the game could continue and justice could be served.

I started this on a silly thought of Kid showing up late to a heist and Nakamori getting progressively more anxious and it spiraled out of control into the odd relationship between cop and robber. I suppose I'm not cut out for fluff. Still, I like it. I wish more attention were paid to the downright fascinating relationship Nakamori, and really the whole KKTF, has with both the first and second Kid. We love to joke and tease about Nakamori like we do Kogoro but he's smart, smart enough to realize there's only a few magicians Kid could be and what that 8 year disappearance really meant. I really hope either DC or MK explores this dynamic more.