This fic was inspired by a review left by the amazing Glowing Glasses. YOU ARE AWESOME.

Warning: Not proofread & written in an hour. Also, it's mostly dialogue. Apologies. - Luna

Kuroba Kaito leaned back in his padded swivel chair, stifling a yawn as he stretched his arms outwards, fingertips sweeping against the comforter lying on his nearby bed.

"Heist jewel located," he murmured aloud, allowing a weary smile to grip his lips for a moment. He'd been searching for a new gem to steal for the last six hours, exhausting all Google's possibilities and about three-fifths of both Bing and Yahoo's.

Most of the more prominent jewels had already passed through the gloved hands of Kaitou Kid, and it was getting to the point where Kid heists were becoming dangerously rare, due to a lack of gemstones located in Japan. Kaito was sure there were many more jewels overseas, but he preferred to keep his heists in the general vicinity of the country.

Heists were also losing audience. He'd only ever had Nakamori and Hakuba Saguru and the occasional guest detective after him, but recently Nakamori and the task force had been reluctantly reassigned to a chronic serial murder case, leaving Kid heists fairly unguarded, at least by police. Hakuba was always dutifully there, sure, but Hattori Heiji and Sera Masumi, his guest detectives, had slowly begun to slow their attendances. Kaito was starting to feel that Hakuba only attended out of obligation and not out of real desire to catch Kid.

When even Hakuba was unenthusiastic about a heist, things were bad.

But this gem seemed promising, anyway. Kaito, blinking hair from his eyes, leaned forward abruptly in order to read the webpage once more.

"The Detective's Guidance," it read, "is a pale blue tanzanite rumored to be haunted by the immortal spirit of a young man. Those who have held the Detective's Guidance claim to have heard a voice speaking in their head. Little is known about the origins of this stone, though it was discovered by a member of the renowned Miyano family in the early 1990s. Recently, it was donated by the heiress of the Miyano family, Miyano Shiho, to the Yamazaki family. This supposedly cursed gem will be on display at the Yamazaki Jewel Center from December 14-25."

Sighing, Kaito pushed aside stray papers and reached for a pen. Time to write the heist note.

Kaito stood on the rooftop of the Yamazaki Jewel Center, feeling intensely irate as he gripped the Detective's Guidance in one hand.

Nobody had appeared to try to provide resistance. Not even Hakuba. Well, unless you counted the Kid-crazy Yamazaki girl who squealed and tried to kiss him.

(She had been knocked out and locked up in the janitor's closet. As much as Kaito loved his female fans, he wanted to save his first kiss for somebody whose first name he actually knew.)

But Hakuba hadn't been there. Hakuba, of all people, had missed a Kid heist. Kaito made a mental note to give him hell for a week.

Now, to check for Pandora...

Kaito lifted the gemstone up into the moonlight. He frowned as the pearlescent light filtered through the light blue stone, catching on the blunt edges of the facets and sparkling like glitter. Was it just him... or was the jewel glowing blue? Upon closer inspection, he realized he was right, and the jewel was indeed emitting a rapidly brightening cerulean color.

Unexpectedly, the gemstone flared with brilliant azure light, and Kid gasped. The last thing he saw before black consumed his vision was the Detective's Guidance slipping from his fingers, flashing with imperious cobalt blue light.

Kaito woke to a pounding headache, the feeling of nausea ripping unpleasantly through him.

Oh God, what the hell?

Kaito frowned. He had not thought that.

Why am I here? Don't tell me...

He had not thought that either. An emotion akin to disbelieving panic was rising in him. What was that about the curse again? The voice of a young man speaking in one's head...?

Dammit, am I inside someone's head again?! shouted the voice, almost as if it had read Kaito's mind.

"Okay, what the hell is happening?!" Kaito shrieked. Luckily for Kid's reputation, he was alone on the roof and his only listeners were the wind and the quickly setting stars.

Don't yell, for God's sake! Okay, calm down. Didn't you read up on the curse? You know, about the Detective's Guidance and all that?!

"Of course I did, but curses rarely ever are true!"

Well that one was, clearly, the voice said drily. Listen, what you should do is probably put down the jewel.

Close to hyperventilating, Kaito glanced down to find himself empty-handed. "I dropped the jewel before you... got here."

...Seriously?! The voice was sounding somewhat panicked now. But I... I only end up in someone's head when they're holding the jewel!

"Goddammit, I'm not holding anything, and you're still inside my freaking head!"

This is weird. The words sounded tight, and Kaito could sense the suppressed alarm the voice was trying to hide. And anyway, why did you touch the jewel?! Miyano told me she was giving the jewel away to some museum so nobody would hold it and I could sleep away in oblivion!

"It was for a heist!" Kaito punctuated the sentence with a chain of swearing.

Heist? Don't tell me, I was stolen by a thief?

"No, you were stolen by an angel," growled Kaito, still feeling highly discomfited. "Who the hell do you think?"

There was a dignified sniff. Where I come from, thieves don't refer to their stealing as 'heists." Also, I'm not appreciating the sarcasm, thief-san.

"I'm a phantom thief. Don't you know what those are?"

Let's see, a phantom thief... A ghost who's a thief? How would that even work?

Kaito rolled his eyes. "No. I'm a well known jewel thief who... Nevermind. Anyway, my name is... er... well, I'm the Kaitou Kid. And as previously stated, I steal jewels like the Detective's Guidance."

May I ask why, or is it just some kind of pastime?

"Because... never mind. It's just a pastime."

The voice let out a sigh. I hear that croquet is rather fun, and you don't obtain a criminal record from it.

"Fine. It's because I'm looking for a jewel called Pandora. According to some legend, which I now thoroughly believe due to our little encounter, it can grant you immortal life. I'm trying to find it and destroy it before a criminal syndicate locates it and actually uses it."

Pandora, you say? The voice was quiet for a moment before the sound of mirthless laughter broke through Kaito's mind.

"What's so funny?"

Oh, it's nothing. I think I know who you're talking about.

"Who? We're talking about a what."

No, you're talking about a... friend of mine. Her name was – is – Ran.

"We're still talking about a jewel."

Listen, thief-san. Do you think I'm a jewel?

"If we're talking about your personality, I'm going to have to say no."

There was an irritated (yet slightly amused) sigh. No, I mean my physical form. Am I simply a "what"? Just a jewel?

"Well, in my experience, I don't usually talk to jewels."

Exactly. I was originally human, and.. It's a long story, but I ended up with my body and spirit trapped inside a jewel. It was the work of a witch.

"How can your body be stuck in a jewel?"

It's got something to do with creating a space where the laws of physics and science aren't applicable, then using a jewel as a sort of portal into the space. Then you force something or someone inside, reverse the anti-science field, and then close the jewel's portal, thereby trapping the person or thing inside a compressed area for pretty much eternity.

"Sorry, you lost me."

I'm not particularly confident that what I just said is actually the process used, but somewhere in there a form of specialized magic has to be done. Now, when the witch who trapped me in here was finishing the last part, the part about closing the jewel's portal, she was interrupted, which is why part of my consciousness is allowed to be outside of the confinements of the jewel. Usually if someone is touching the jewel, my thoughts, part of my mind really, can be transmitted into the person's. But for some reason, you, thief-san, are not holding me, yet I'm still in your head.

"So wait, how long have you been trapped inside the jewel?" Kaito wondered, staring at the sparkling blue stone lying a few feet away from him.

I'm not sure. But I was the...

Kaito tilted his head to one side as the voice trailed off. "You were the...?"

When the voice finally spoke again, it had a heartbreaking, quiet lilt to it. I was the crown prince of a... country.

"So I've really got a royal pain stuck in my head, huh?" Kaito laughed lightly, trying to cheer up the voice.

You don't understand. After the witch shut me into the jewel, my country and another went to war trying to destroy the witch's country in revenge. She came from a country full of wizards and magicians and generally magic-users, so it was impossible for my country and its ally, with its total of four sorcerers, to defeat it. We were destroyed. I was forced to watch as everyone was slaughtered around me.

"You can see?"

At the time I could. Part of my physical senses had been left outside the jewel as well as my part of my mind. But over the years the amount of my physical senses left outside the jewel has lessened and completely disappeared. Even though the closing of the portal was incomplete, the rest of my mind and my body inside are constantly trying to pull in the last bit of me. Soon I'll be completely gone, swallowed up by the jewel.

A thought struck Kaito. "Wait, are you immortal?"

In a sense, yes. My body doesn't age, if that's what you mean. It will be forever stuck at seventeen, since that's the age I was trapped at.

"Anyway, back on topic. Who was that Ran you talked about?"

Silence.

"If you don't want to talk about it, just say so."

There was a pause, and then, I supposed you deserve to know the full story about the witch and about my being trapped if I'm going to be here for a long time.

What happened was there was an arranged marriage between a princess from another country and myself. This princess – known as Princess Heart to her people, and Ran to me – was a childhood friend of mine. I'd been in love with her for some time, and she'd been in love with me for just as long. So we were both secretly happy about our parents' decision.

Kaito felt a pang, of what he had no clue, but a pang nonetheless at the voice's words.

A week before our wedding day, a woman – a girl, really – approached me, stating that she was in love me with and she wouldn't allow Ran and my wedding to happen. She also stated that she had been studying magic for months in preparation. At the time I hadn't known what she planned on doing with the magic and thought it was an empty threat. So I brushed her off.

On our wedding day, she marched into the church holding two jewels. She knocked out all the guests and killed my and Ran's parents. She then trapped Ran inside one of the jewels completely, and then tried to do the same to me. As I've already explained, she was interrupted while trying by one of our few magicians, who happened to be a guest, but in the end she got away.

After that, I just watched and waited. Empires rose and fell, and I stayed the same. Until finally somebody picked me up. It was a scientist who thought I might be the secret to immortal life. I was studied in the labs of a criminal syndicate, probably a lot like the one you mentioned, but eventually I was abandoned and forgotten about. Finally, a girl, Miyano Shiho, found me, picked me up, and realized that she could hear my thoughts.

She carried me around so we could have conversations – she even formulated a poison, something she called Apoptoxin 4869, from ideas I came up with. Of course, I hadn't originally meant for it to be a poison, but somehow that's how it ended up.

Recently, though, she confessed to me, but I had to tell her I didn't return her feelings. She was heartbroken, of course, and donated the jewel to the Yamazaki family. And that takes us to now.

Kaito whistled. "That's some tough stuff you had to go through, huh?" A smile shadowed across his lips. "I almost think you're insane."

Hey, you're the one who's been conversing with a voice inside his head for over an hour, thief-san, the voice retorted.

Blinking, Kaito realized that the voice was correct. He had been sitting on the rooftop, talking to his heist gem, for long enough that the morning sun was starting to flare up around the buildings.

"Dammit, I have school!" he groaned. He staggered to his feet and scooped up the Detective's Guidance – which was slightly warm. Kaito stopped in his tracks to look down at it. A cornflower blue light was pulsing at its core. He raised an eyebrow and tucked it into his pocket.

Kaito started for the edge of the rooftop before realizing something. "Oh, hey, I never got your name."

That's right. Kaito could almost hear a smile in the voice. I guess my formal name would be Crown Prince Spade, but my real name was Kudou Shinichi.

"Shinichi, then?"

Sure. And you?

Hesitating as he opened his hang glider, Kaito began, "I said that I'm Kaitou Kid –"

Civilian name, if you would. As Kaito wavered again, Shinichi added, It's not like I can do anything as a voice stuck in your head. Anyway, soon I won't be even that. I'll just be an inanimate jewel, once my soul is pulled completely into the Detective's Guidance.

Kaito was quiet for a moment as he leaped off the rooftop, his hang glider catching a thermal easily. "I'm Kuroba Kaito. And you know what, Shinichi?"

What?

"Since I'm a nice person, I'm going to tell you that I'm not letting you get pulled into the Detective's Guidance."

How exactly would do you plan on doing that? wondered Shinichi, sounding cynical yet hopeful.

"Well, I know a girl who claims to be a witch. She can probably release you from the jewel."

A witch?

"Yep."

Shinichi was quiet. This may not end well, Kuroba-san.

"You never know if you never try," Kaito argued cheerfully, swooping over a convenience store and landing in front of the Kuroba home. "Oh, and Shinichi?"

Yes?

"Call me Kaito."

Another chapter fic from me! This time I'm doing a bit of fantasy. Unfortunately, I have no plot planned for this, so updates could be a bit sporadic.Also, this thing has way too much dialogue. Good God. And the idea is quite cliche.

Oh, and the explanation of how Shinichi got stuck inside the jewel? Total BS. I had no idea how to make it sound scientific, because I'm currently failing my science class. If I get reviews telling me that it makes no sense, I'm just going to laugh at you.

Anyway, hope you liked it. It probably seemed fairly ShinRan-y, but not to worry, it will end ShinKai. Obviously.

Also, gigantic thanks to Glowing Glasses, whose review inspired this. She's an awesome ShinKai writer; go check out her stuff!

- Luna

(Oh, and did you catch the Desperate Revival references? :D)