Plot bunnies knawing at my brain again! AU plotbunnies to boot! THEY'RE EVIL. Enjoy and R&R if you'd like to see more!

"So now you show up, after he's stolen the painting and left us this mess hours ago already. Typical, Kuroba, typical."

Nakamori Ginzo-keibu followed this irritated statement to the famous teen meitantei Kuroba Kaito with an icy glare as his investigative team continued to survey the scene in the museum of yet another impossible-seeming robbery committed by the daring thief who had come to be nicknamed the Black Fox by the police chasing him.

The elusive robber had never even been caught yet on any sort of camera, but his signature was to leave a small black plush fox behind with a note around its neck that simply read 'Thank you' in distinctly masculine handwriting. All efforts to find the manufacturer of the fox toy or the paper used for the notes had proved fruitless so far and the police were getting very frustrated, especially when even the special task force they'd put together to stop the thief was getting nowhere in a hurry.

What was most interesting to the police, and especially to Kaito- the thing that had first piqued the tantei's interest and steered him towards investigating the thief in his free time when he wasn't busy with his usual murders, really- was the fact that the Black Fox inexplicably, strangely always returned what he took, and the thief had always done so since his bizarre brand of larceny had begun a little over a year and a half ago. When the first item had been returned it was automatically assumed to be a clever fake, but it had been quickly found to be the genuine article - as was the case with every subsequent item.

In fact, the police were having a difficult time even finding victims of his crimes that were willing to file charges against Black Fox because they knew that the items would be returned if they were patient. Within a week or two, whatever thing that the thief had made off with in his heist was discovered carefully wrapped up in a neat box that matched the object's size, invariably left right on the doorstep of the Tokyo police headquarters for extra hilarity provided to the public at the expense of the police's furious embarrassment.

The local media always had a field day with thier reports when the thief left his returned 'presents', and captions that poked fun at the police's helplessness in the Fox's wake such as the most recent one from three weeks ago- 'CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY FOR THE POLICE' in large type below a zoomed in picture of the neatly wrapped gift still sitting on the headquarter's stoop- were becoming commonplace and an irritant to the police in general and Nakamori in particular, who headed the anti-Fox investigation unit that had become known simply as Hound both inside and outside of law enforcement.

"Well, you didn't have Aoko call me and wake me up to come here until after you were nearly done already processing the scene this time, keibu," replied Kaito with a smirk and dismissive shrug as he shook his head a bit to get the blood flowing to his brain. Ugh...need coffee... "How is that my fault?"

"It's your fault for staying up late and not waking up till past noon every day we have off of school if left to your own devices," stated Nakamori Aoko as she approached her longtime friend from behind and gave Kaito a sound whack to the head with a nearby drop cloth. "It's just a wee bit embarrassing when you call your b-" After quickly realizing the massive slip of the tongue she had been about to make, she thought fast and corrected the rest of the phrase by finishing with "-est friend and have to make him get his butt out of bed at ten A.M. in front of several police it makes you look bad, me look bad and makes Dad look bad too." Ugh, careful Aoko, the idiot doesn't know how you really feel about him yet...

"Well, it's my day off, and last I heard sleep was good for you." He ended this sentence by yawning while covering his mouth, then sticking his tongue out at Aoko before turning back to the man who had summoned him. "So it was a painting this time, keibu?" The other puzzling thing about Black Fox was that there was no consistency to what he took, no apparent rhyme or reason to his burglaries beyond him taking things and returning them. Places as varied as low-end malls and million-dollar museums had been targeted, and the always-returned objects pilfered just as broad in scope.

"Yeah, this painting, Lady of the Dawn," stated Nakamori flatly as he pointed to a photo of it that was included in a tour guide. "The museum's external security company that manages thier sensors and alarms as well as the patrols said that the painting's sensors got triggered at eleven P.M. and they couldn't contact any of the guards here. When the first unit of police got here about eleven-twenty they found all three guards who were supposed to be patrolling the floor tied up and unconsious in the guard room, the usual fox plush animal with note attatched sitting by them. Stupid damn plush animal," Nakamori finished while gritting his teeth.

"Makes you wonder if he's working alone or not," offered one of the officers working the scene hesitantly after having overheard the discussion. "No way one guy can overpower three others by himself in a fight. Maybe he has a partner who works with him."

"Or he used a sleeping gas of some sort before he tied them up," offered Kaito mildly as he amusedly pointed to a small canister that was laying on the floor in front of an air vent that looked like it had been pried open from the inside. "That would do it, too."

"So, oh infalliable meitantei Kaito, savior of the Japanese police force, what do you think of the Black Fox? Dad's getting really frustrated with him, assuming it's a guy," Aoko inquired brightly in a joking tone as they walked through Tropical Land a few hours later, thier present location the food and knickknack booths surrounding the park's Mystery Coaster, which had a packed, long line for it like always. Aoko was currently nibbling on a large helping of cotton candy in a stick, and Kaito adamantly refused to admit to himself how cute she looked while she was eating it.

"Well, never assume anything; could be a male or female. But to answer your question, I find some of thier methods unusual, and the fact that they always return the items is obviously way out of the usual M.O. for a burglar," replied Kaito, grateful for the distraction. Stupid girl, stupid cotton candy... "I almost wonder sometimes if they aren't an extremely intelligent kleptomaniac, but it seems like they go to an awful lot of trouble to plan and execute these heists, as well as going to the danger and trouble of packaging up and returning the items later when there are far easier ways to satisfy those kinds of urges. The fact that they return them also seems on the surface to rule out klep-"

Just then a loud scream issued from the direction of the roller coaster's loading and unloading area, and Kaito's blood began to race, sensing that here was a murder- just the mental excercise that he'd been craving all morning since leaving the Fox's latest crime scene frustrated at his inability to make any headway into the thief's exceedingly strange behavior or his true identity. Kaito did strongly suspect that the thief was a male, though age range was still difficult to determine without additional evidence and he most definitely had no concrete evidence pointing at gender yet.

"Let me guess, we have to go over there," sighed Aoko as she polished off the last of her treat. "Figures; murder seems to follow you like a shadow, or so Dad always says."

"It's somehow my fault that I get involved in murder cases regularly when I'm a detective and I'm called in to help solve them?" queried Kaito in half-angry reply before someone in the crowd surrounding the coaster after the scream recognized him and pointed.

"It's Kuroba Kaito, the well-known meitantei!"

"If anyone can get to the bottom of this, it's him!"

"The savior of the police!"

Kaito put on a million-watt grin for his fans while pulling out a flower from thin air, barely hearing Aoko's "I can see his head swelling like a balloon" over the clapping and cheering that ensued from the packed crowd. Besides detecting, his other passion was magic- after all, not only had his father been a magician before his unexpected death when Kaito had been eight, but the tantei strongly felt that the mental and physical conditioning both required to memorize and perform the sleight of hand tricks were an enormous boon in his detective work.

"A murder? Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this..."

Twenty minutes later, he had (correctly, of course) named the ex-girlfriend as the murderer and revealed the technique she had used to commit the crime, but Kaito had become suspicious enough of the two gentlemen dressed from head to toe in black that had been in his suspect pool that he decided to follow them and find out what exactly was going on, hiding himself behind a nearby wall after deciding that it would be risky to get any closer. He had already made his excuses to Aoko, not wanting her to follow him or be involved because his gut was telling him that something Very Bad was going on here.

"Sorry I made you wait, Mr. CEO," stated the heavier-set of the pair as he walked towards a very nervous-looking man in a tan suit.

"Look, I came by myself, just like you said!" cried the other man, clutching a briefcase to him like his life depended on it.

"I know you did...I checked to make sure from the top of that roller coaster..."

So that's why they were on the coaster...to check whether this guy came alone?

"C'mon, gimme the thing..." pleaded the CEO in a quavering voice.

"Don't be so impatient...the money comes first..." replied the black-suited man in a serious tone.

"HERE! No problem, right?!" cried the CEO, opening a suitcase to expose what Kaito guessed had to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million yen, his eyes widening slightly as he added the bills up in his head.

"Right. The deal is complete!" responded the other man after taking the suitcase and examining the bills in it closely.

"Now gimme the film..."

"Here ya go! Film of your company's gun smuggling. You shouldn't be so naughty!" the first man finished in a jubilant tone as he tossed a roll of film at the CEO.

"Shut up! Compared to the stuff you guys do, we're-" cried the CEO as Kaito quickly dug his small camera out of a coat pocket and began to take pictures. Always be prepared...

"I wouldn't say any more, for your sake," replied the other man as he holstered his gun and walked away from the meeting spot with the cash-filled suitcase in hand.

"Shut up, you filthy hyenas!" demanded the CEO as Kaito kept snapping pictures of the incident, fully focused on what was going on in front of him.

A nearly fatal mistake on his part, and one that would wind up greatly altering the course of the magician tantei's life.

"Your detective game," began a voice from behind him as Kaito realized too late that he had entirely forgotten about the second man in black, "is OVER!"

Suddenly, the world exploded into stars, darkness and pain as Kaito felt something very, very hard hit him squarely over the top of the head. He faded in and out of consciousness as the two men held a conversation.

"...little shit...trailing us..."

"...kill him?"

"...pigs still...that shit earlier..."

"...use this...poison..."

Just then, Kaito felt himself get very roughly turned over as a double image of the blonde-haired man appeared in front of his eyes.

"...tested it...humans..."

Kaito felt his mouth get opened as the man tilted his head back and placed something into it that felt like a pill, followed by a glass being placed to his lips that was filled with water; he couldn't help the instinctual swallow reflex and swallowed whatever it had been with the water.

"...little guinea pig..."

The man then dumped him back down on the ground.

"So long, Detective!"

Somehow, he heard those parting words from the blonde clear as a bell before his entire body felt like it had been set on fire, a sensation which lasted a good three minutes before the meitantei passed out from the pain.