1100, March 28 – Las Vegas

Deep in her purse, a muffled ringtone was playing. The loud chords jolted up her spine as she fished through the cluttered bag to find the noisy phone. Grabbing onto it, she felt a pit open in her stomach as she registered what she was holding. It was that phone. The emergency phone.

"Hello, this is Tomizawa Mizuki," she said, eyes wide in fear but voice unwavering. Toichi, after all, had taught her a thing or two about poker faces when they had met. The false words easily ran off Chikage's tongue just as she had rehearsed all those months ago.

A gruff yet familiar voice came from the other line. "This is Inspector Nakamori Ginzo from the Metropolitan Police Department. I'm sorry to call you at such a late hour." A pause. Chikage glanced at her watch in confusion, but quickly calculating recalled that even though it was 11AM in Las Vegas it was 3 AM in Tokyo. "Miss Tomizawa, are you aware that you were listed as the emergency contact for Kaitou 1412?"

She ignored his question. She knew the purpose of this phone call anyway. Only bad news could come from Ginzo at this point. It was better to rip the band-aid off. "Is he alive?"

"Yes, but -"

"Which hospital?"

"Beika General."

She hung up the phone and immediately purchased a plane ticket to Japan. Her son needed her.

2300, March 29 - Tokyo

Ginzo was sitting watch in the young thief's room. Checking his watch, he confirmed that it had been twenty hours since he called the thief's… whoever she was to him. Emergency contact. They had been lucky to find the thief's phone, although perhaps the thief had prepared it especially for this moment. The inspector wouldn't have been surprised. The thief was incredibly good at planning for – contingencies – such as these.

Speaking of the thief… his face was wrapped in bandages from the explosion that had occurred making facial identification impossible – although that was honestly at the bottom of their task list at the moment. The task force had all volunteered to work extra hours, pulling in shifts round the clock to ensure the thief would be watched at all times. They could have pulled in regular guards from the station for this, as there was zero expectation for the thief to escape in this condition, but Ginzo suspected his team had a soft spot for the thief and wanted to keep watch themselves. Ginzo couldn't blame them – he had a soft spot for the guy, too.

He watched the thief's chest rise and fall with the ventilator's help, praying with each respiration. Beep, rise. Beep, fall. The heart rate on the monitor seemed just as steady as it had been for the past day. Not stable, but not unstable. Not going anywhere.

The doctors had been brutally honest with the Inspector. The prognosis wasn't good. They seemed surprised he was even still alive at this point.

Just then, Ginzo heard a clacking of heels echo through the hallway. A young blonde woman, at most approaching thirty, arrived in the doorway to the room, seemingly out of breath. Her eyes were trained on the thief, but her entrance to the room was blocked by the task force members, who looked to Ginzo for direction.

Ginzo stood up and approached her. "Miss Tomizawa?"

"Can I please just be with him?" she pleaded. She looked so tired. "For one moment? And then I'll answer any questions you have."

The face of a broken woman. She – whoever she was – loved the thief – whoever he was. Who was Ginzo to deny her a moment with him when he had so few left? Ginzo gave the order and the task force stepped aside. The woman rushed to the thief's side.

Her hands held the thief's head and she kissed his forehead. "Everything's okay, now. Kaa-san is here."

The thief opened his eyes for the first time all day. Fluttering eyes – groggy eyes – tried to focus in on the woman staring down at him.

"I - never - found it - Kaa-san…"

His voice was so sleepy and weak. Chikage pulled her son closer.

"It's okay," She whispered, stroking her fingers through her son's hair. "It's okay to go. Tou-san is waiting for you. I love you so much."

She kissed his forehead once more.

"The Nakamori's love you too."

He closed his eyes for the last time.

Some time had passed after and Ginzo finally decided that he could no longer put off the questioning. Approaching the blonde woman, who was still sitting in the room although the thief had been moved to the morgue, he sat down beside her and said, because it was the only thing he could say, "I'm sorry about your loss."

Her eyes were focused on her hands, which were resting in her lap. She had an expensive-looking wedding ring on her finger that she was fiddling with. It looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it. She spoke, after a few moments, "You meant the world to him, I hope you know that."

Ginzo tried to hide his surprise at that statement but failed. "How come? I was his adversary."

"What questions do you have for me?"

"Well…" he flipped through his notebook. He had been compiling questions, inconsistencies, and curiosities over the day while they waited for her arrival. "You said you were his mother?"

"I am."

"Did you know that he was Kaitou Kid?"

"It'd be a little hard not to," she laughed hollowly. "Anyway, you already knew I knew."

"Yes, I did."

"Am I going to be arrested for obstruction of justice?" she asked.

Ginzo faltered. "Possibly."

She sighed, world-weary. "Then I suppose it doesn't matter what I say now?"

"I wish you would tell the truth," Ginzo said. "We just want to understand why your son did what he did."

She was quiet for a long time. "For a long time, my son and I only had each other. His father died eight years ago. He was the original Kaitou Kid. I liked to call my son Kid Jr. It was a little joke with us, that he was carrying on the family business. We were a bunch of kaitous, after all."

"We?" Ginzo questioned.

"I'm retired now, but I was one at one point in my life." She looked at the bed, covers folded neatly and awaiting its next guest. "I asked him to stop being Kaitou Kid a few months ago. He didn't want to. So that's when I asked him to carry an emergency phone with him to his heists – in case something like this ever happened. I didn't want him to be alone."

"The doctors said he was waiting for you to arrive."

Her breath caught. She was trying not to break down in tears in front of the Inspector. Poker Face. Poker Face. Poker Face.

"What do I do now?" she asked Ginzo, tears spiking her sore eyes. "How do I live with this?"

He searched for the words to say. How to comfort a grieving mother who just lost her son, who turned out to be an international criminal? How to comfort a mother who only wanted to protect her son but failed? In the end, he pulled her into his arms and held her close. He felt his shirt turn damp as she cried silently into his chest.

Damn the Kaitou Kid, he reflected. Damn him for putting his mother through this.

And damn Ginzo for not stopping him sooner.

She pulled away after a few minutes. She wiped her eyes with a tissue before smiling sadly at Ginzo. "How do I look now?"

Her makeup was smudged. Whatever molding putty she had used to disguise her appearance had shifted out of place, making her look disfigured. The makeup surrounding her right eye was wiped clean away, revealing to Ginzo its true appearance. It looked quite familiar, but he couldn't place where he had seen her eye before. "Your disguise is a little messed up."

"Is it?" she whined, pulling a mirror out of her purse and examining her face. She hastily reached into her purse and pulled out a disguise kit. After a few minutes she turned back to Ginzo, face completely changed. "Better?"

"Better. Although now I know where he got it from, I guess."

"He always used my clothes, you know," she said, "for his female disguises. I wasn't home a lot, so he would ransack my closet as payback. I'd get home and my blouses would be stretched out and my heels would be broken or flattened. He didn't have as petite of feet as I did. At first I thought he was just into cross-dressing, so I started buying him girls' clothes, but then I realized he just needed a few clothes here and there for his night job." She smiled. "So naturally I bought him a wardrobe full of clothes from Forever 21."

"I always wondered where he got the clothes," Ginzo said truthfully. Half his mind had wondered if the thief had the guts to go to the store and buy the clothes himself. He'd even investigated a few retailers and reviewed their surveillance footage and customer purchase history, to no avail. This explained a lot.

The woman stood up. "Do you have any more questions for me, keibu?"

"Yes, actually..." he trailed off as she began walking out the door.

She stopped and turned. "Then I'm sorry to not answer them. I need to be going now."

"Wait - !" Ginzo cried, and instinctively reach forward. With a burst of smoke, she disappeared.

When the smoke dissipated, the task force huddled around the spot she had last occupied. Ginzo let out a humorless chuckle. "Like mother, like son, huh..."

0830, December 14

It was a dark morning. Ginzo crushed some frozen leaves under his shoes as he walked through the cemetery. His visit there was a routine one - a monthly one - to visit his late wife, Shinju. Today marked fourteen years since he had lost her in a car crash after she dropped Aoko off at daycare.

For Ginzo, this anniversary always signified the beginning of the end of the year. It was a time for reflection of another year gone by without Shinju. Another year fluttering past like a cherry blossom in the wind, blowing by too quick to grab on to. He could only watch the petals swirl, out of reach, and enjoy their beauty.

The year had brought so many changes. Aoko had started her final year at Ekoda High. Kaito had moved overseas to be with his mother. Kaitou Kid had died.

That last one was the biggest change. No more Kaitou Kid heists. No more chasing the white-clad thief around skyscrapers and fancy hotels. No more dreamy midnights being outwitted by one of the smartest fiends he had ever encountered. No more late nights doing paperwork and submitting reports explaining why Kaitou Kid had gotten away again. He was gone.

Ginzo marched his way through the cemetery. He knew its paths by heart. He knew every intersection, knew every tree, knew every shrine. He passed by a few old task force members that had succumbed to age or the job, he passed by an elderly neighbor he used to shovel snow for, he passed by Kuroba Toichi and -

He stopped and inspected Kuroba Toichi's grave closer. For the past eight years, the spot beside his name had always been left purposefully blank, awaiting Kuroba Chikage's own death so that she would be able to join her husband in the after life. Now, though - now -

He took his phone out and dialed.

"Hello, this is Tomizawa Mizuki," a woman's voice answered.

"Chikage-san," Ginzo said. "It was Kaito-kun, right?"

A long silence. "You found him?"

"Yes," he said, staring at the inscription on the grave marker. "But why here? I thought this spot was for you -"

"I didn't want him to be alone," Chikage answered. "He was too young to find love."

"You're right," Ginzo muttered in agreement. "Much too young."

Silence from the other side.

"I'll take this to the grave."

"Thank you, Ginzo-kun." She paused. "And Ginzo-kun - I meant it when I said he thought the world of you. He really, truly did."

The call ended.

Ginzo stood in front of the Kuroba family grave marker for a few moments, offering a few prayers. Then, looking at the bouquet of flowers in his hand - all meant for Shinju - he stood conflicted for a moment before setting the bouquet down on the ground. He'd get Shinju flowers next time he came around. Right now, someone needed them more.

Finally he departed from the grave, leaves crunching under his shoes once more. Their echoes rippled through the crisp winter air, and a few specks of snow began to fall. Winter was around the corner.

Kuroba Kaito
June 21 1988 - March 29 2005
Beloved Son, Friend, and Magician