It's a normal heist when it happens.

None of your critics are there, which makes it slightly boring. But it's not like Nakamori-keibu has ever taken a day off in his life, so there's still him. And the rest of the Task Force, of course.

Altogether, they're probably about as challenging as Hakuba.

They have nothing on Tantei-kun.

(You might miss him, a little. He's ignored your past three heist notices, and although you can understand the first time since he'd just been shot - hospitals really should protect their records better - it's been nearly three months since then and it had only been a graze.)

(He's healed, completely.)

(He's just not here.)

(You're starting to get the feeling that he's avoiding you.)

You sigh, opening the door to the rooftop and habitually glancing around. There's no one there, no glint from the barrel of a sniper rifle. You're safe, probably, so you may as well wait for the Task Force to catch up so you can bestow upon them a suitably dramatic exit, befitting of your heists. There's no point in wasting a stage like this, even if you've missed something.

(Not that anyone would really miss you, if you died. Sure, Aoko and Nakamori-keibu would mourn you, maybe even your detectives - you'd be disappointed if Tantei-kun hasn't figured out your identity by now - but none of them know all of you, beneath your masks. How can they miss you, if they don't even really know who you are?)

Out of habit, you apathetically bring the jewel up to the light of the full moon. You're really not expecting anything at this point, but, to your complete and utter astonishment, it begins to glow.

Red.

It's not quite the red you were expecting - less the color of rubies or the sunrise on a day for cautious sailors and more sanguine, which you suppose seems apt, considering all the blood that's been spilled over it.

You bring it closer to your eyes, as if the space between it and you has some impact on the color and bringing it closer will somehow change the fact that you've actually found Pandora.

Honestly, you hadn't truly thought it existed, but you suppose this proves you wrong.

The miniscule distance - you have it pressed up against your eye now, the one without the monocle, though you've removed that at this point so that you can see it properly - reveals an odd glint inside the gem, and you frown, puzzled, until a bullet shatters the gem and plows itself straight into your brain.
You have just enough time to think ah, well before everything turns black.

.

.

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You wake up.

Odd.

That isn't something you could say you were expecting.

Usually, a bullet to the brain means death , but you suppose you've always been special.

You prop yourself up on your elbows and look around the rooftop. You're alone, but probably not for much longer. You can hear Nakamori-keibu's swears now; he's perhaps five floors away, which should give you a little over two minutes to pull yourself together, even assuming he manages to dodge all the traps you've left behind.

...Something's wrong, though, and you can't put your finger on it.

Something wet slides down your cheek, and you wonder why you're crying. There's nothing in particular here to prompt tears, especially when you're on the job, so to speak.

Those aren't tears, Tantei-kun says to your left, and you almost jump because you're sure that he hadn't even been at this heist.

...In fact, you're approximately ninety-five per cent sure that he's currently in Sapporo.

But, when you turn to your left, there he is in his suit jacket and bow tie and soccer-ball-emitting belt and frankly dangerous shoes, in all his obsessively put-together glory.

Yo, KID, he says, hardly moving his lips, and gives you a dorky little salute.

You fix your Poker Face back in place and give him KID's smile. "Tantei-kun, I thought you were ignoring me - "

He snorts. Stupid thief. Think about your appearance. You've just been shot, you know. He pushes his glasses up and rubs just underneath his eye pointedly.

Curiously, you mimic the movement, and your glove comes away stained red.

That's when you realize what's wrong.

Everything on the roof is overshadowed by red.

Your blood is red and your gloves are red and your suit is red and the rooftop is red and Tantei-kun is red and Nakamori-keibu when he bursts through the door is red and in your reflection in the windows of the building you can't tell if your eyes are their usual indigo or if you're hallucinating that they're more purple or maybe just plain red and -

Even the moon is red.

You don't know what you say to Nakamori-keibu, but he looks suitably infuriated, so you assume it was something in character and chalk it up as a win. Tantei-kun is laughing beside you, the kind of laugh that makes him seem far older than he looks, and you're a little surprised Nakamori-keibu isn't scolding him for it. At some point you must pick up the shards of the shattered jewel, because you can feel them cutting into your hand through your glove, and there's also an uncomfortable spot of warmth in your breast pocket that may or may not be the bullet that may or may not have killed you.
You jump off the side of the building with a final witty remark you can't quite remember and fly home - or, rather, you fly until you manage to lose the police and then you walk home, because a couple kilometers really isn't that far, all things considered.

One you're safely tucked away into your room (bathed in red), you put on your sleeping clothes and curl up with your covers over your head, hoping this is just a terribly confusing dream and everything will be fine when you wake up.

(Tantei-kun's voice whispers right in your ear, like there's nothing blocking him, in his sing-songy little kid voice: Is it ever really fine, Kaitou-nii~sa~n~? And then he laughs and laughs and laughs, and you try to block it out, but you can't when he's right there , even though there's no weight on your bed where he should be sitting, no way he could've gotten into your house, let alone your room - )

Well.

As fine as it ever is.

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.

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In the original myth, it wasn't Pandora's Box.

It was Pandora's pithos , a jar, a container.

Pandora wasn't a gem.

It was just inside one.

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He-ey, Kaitou-nii~sa~n~

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What's the price of living forever?

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Aren't you wondering?

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what

.

happened

.

to

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pandora

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?

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Notes: title from Last of Me (Circus-P) also, the new conan movie? it's a wild ride.