Ransom

Kaito's at it again, Aoko thought, poofing up colors and things that shouldn't even be in a normal seventeen year-old's pocket. However, for just that moment, she allowed a smile to grace upon her lips, because now Kaito wasn't using his magic tricks to play a nasty prank on her. Right now, he was standing on two socked feet on her living room couch – a makeshift stage – so that he could present her weary father with a magic show.

Truth be told, she was the one who requested Kaito to show him a few tricks on his spare time just to lift Nakamori's mood a bit. Kid has been irritatingly active lately, pulling heists week after week, giving her father little time for rest and his only daughter.

However, to her surprise, it was Kaito who decided to make it big. It was him who asked – or rather begged – Nakamori to hold his small little performance in their house on a weekend so Aoko could be there. So Ako could be there with her dad. So she could see him loosen up and smile.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Nakamori suddenly hollered, snapping Aoko out of her daze. It was then that she noticed an annoyingly familiar flash of white. Kaito was dressed up as Kid. And he had a pie slapped into his face, along with a very flustered expression. Even though Aoko thought that it wasn't really the thief humiliating himself before her, it was still extremely close to the real thing; that in itself was very amusing – watching the collected international thief act like the jokester Kaito is. She felt her own stomach churn as a soft chuckle left her lips.

"Bakaito," she giggled, watching in amusement as Inspector Nakamori doubled over in the midst of the continuous bursts of mirth. Kaito grinned proudly to himself before lifting Kid's top hat, which revealed an oversized chicken resting atop his head.

"Oh my, no wonder my head's been heavy," he spoke, adding just the right amount of Kid's cockiness into his tone.

Aoko's giggles escalated into wild maniacal laughter. "Kid's head is always heavy because it's always filled with arrogance," Nakamori deemed in a wobbly voice, although the bright glimmer in his eyes didn't go over the young magician's head. Smiling, Kaito straightened up and presented his final trick – bathing 'Kid' in pink powder.

"Bravo!" Aoko yelled as Kaito removed his top hat and bowed to his two audiences. Beside her, Nakamori was clapping, hooting every once in awhile.

"You should teach me your tricks, Kaito-kun," Nakamori grinned, patting the young magician at the back once he had shrugged off the pink-dyed costume. "It could be the key to finally capturing Kid!"

Kaito's lips, in response, twitched uncomfortably. "Haha," he chuckled. "You think so?"

Aoko felt a smirk spread across her face. Kaito always has been a big fan of the thief – something that she could never understand.

"Of course! After all, the—" Nakamori was cut off by a sudden jolt in his pocket. With his face suddenly taking a more serious air, he glanced at his phone's caller ID. "I need to take this," he said before disappearing into the hallway.

When he was gone, Aoko sighed and collapsed into the cushion. "Must be work again. Dad has it hard. Kid's heists are beginning to grow violent nowadays. There are snipers there, Kaito. Snipers! And…my dad is in there." Her lips twisted grimly as her eyes suddenly grew distant. "Kid's got it easy. He doesn't need to worry about the injured civilians."

Kaito freezes over, but Aoko is too busy staring at her feet to notice. Then, "Maa, Aoko. Don't worry about your dad. He'll be fine!"

She shook her head, fumbling anxiously with the hem of her shirt. "He's not invincible."

"But twenty years of chasing after the world's greatest thief should've given him all the agility that he needs to stay out of trouble." He stares into Aoko's eyes, suddenly very serious. "Listen, if you keep worrying like that, you'll end up sweating out the nutrients that are supposed to go to your chest."

There was a pause, and Kaito braced himself for the mop, for the comeback, for the punches or all of them combined. Instead, he was greeted by an eye roll and a soft, bated "thank you."

He raised his brows. "Aoko, you're thanking me for—"

"Not for that, idiot!" She sat back and turned away. "I'm thanking you for the magic show, and for making me find time with my dad. You're actually nice if you're not being an irritating prankster. Which you usually are, by the way."

She could've gone on – add a bit of sarcasm, a tinge of buffoonery and maybe a tint of flattery to her close-to-honesty speech. However, her thoughts are interrupted by the phone wailing. Kaito straightens up and reaches over the desk to pick it up, used to answering phone calls in his childhood friend's house. "Hello?"

"Nakamori," says the voice. It was raspy and deep, obviously disguised to conceal an identity. Kaito's eyes widened, and instinctively, he reaches over and records the conversation.

"Who is this?" He glances at Aoko, who freezes at the goofy prankster's sudden air of sternness. He mouths at Aoko and tells her to call her dad, and in a second, she's scrambling towards the kitchen.

Aoko gets there just in time to see her father close his phone. "Dad," she gasped from the doorway. "There's a weird person on the phone. You might want to be there."

Nakamori had his doubts. He raised his eyebrows at his daughter's alarm, wanting to know what was going on. However, before he could ask, Aoko was bolting back into the living room.

When she returned, she felt her heart clench.

Kaito looked horrified. It wasn't the kind of horror he got whenever fish is involved. That look on his face right there? That's concern – pure, genuine terror.

"What do you want?" he growls. Kaito taps on the desk as he listens to the man's response. Then, his fingers go still, and she could see his chest freeze beneath the polo.

Her father walks in at that moment and, feeling the tense atmosphere, he says, "Kaito-kun?" The young boy looks at the Inspector and holds a finger to his lips.

Suddenly, the air feels very chilly. Aoko could feel her heart running cold as she continued to listen to Kaito – the silly bright-eyed Kaito – converse with the unknown recipient in an iced, steely voice.

Finally, he puts down the phone. For a minute, he stood still – gripping the edge of the desk, his shoulders tense. Then, Nakamori took a step forward. "Kaito-kun, what was that?"

"Kidnapping."

Aoko and Nakamori freeze, the gears in their brains working fast. Kidnapping, Aoko thought. Kidnapping is a crime that she was far from familiar with, even if her father is a cop – the head of a Task Force dedicated to capture a world-famous criminal, actually. But that's just it! The criminal that he's after is – in her opinion – merely an annoying, attention-seeking buffoon who can't sit still.

As far as she's concerned, Kid doesn't kidnap people. He doesn't hurt people, he doesn't kill. The thief was even said to have jumped off aircrafts and buildings to save some butts. Before the snipers came, Kid's 'honor code,' as people liked to call it, was what eased Aoko's anxiety towards her father's safety.

And now, for some blasted reason, they were dealing with kidnapping!

"Kidnapping?" Nakamori spluttered. "Kaito-kun, that's—"

"Nakamori." The Inspector paused and gaped at the black device held between Kaito's fingers. The young boy was replaying the entire conversation, which he had recorded.

"Who is this?"

"That doesn't matter."

Aoko heard her footsteps in the background, before hearing Kaito's response. "I'm not the Inspector—"

"Then I want you to pass a message, kid." A soft chuckle. "I have a request. And his daughter. Lovely girl she is, you know?"

"Aoko!" Kaito's voice snaps. "She's alright? I want to talk to her. Nothing happens until then." Aoko glances immediately at her childhood friend. His face was stoic, revealing nothing. Deep down, she wondered why he never told the guy she was safe. Why did Kaito go along with it?

A ruffle comes from the other line. Then,"dad?" A voice. It was a girl's voice, probably the same age as Aoko. "Dad, don't do anything he tells you to! Don't—"

The girl was cut off – probably, the phone was taken away from her. Then, she could hear a long pause. Kaito was collecting himself, she thought. The voice wasn't hers, but it could be real. It must be real.

"What do you want?" He whispers in an odd tone.

"Simple. I want Kaitou Kid delivered to me in a week – dead or alive, it doesn't matter."

A sharp breath. All at once, the gears in Aoko and Nakamori's brains seemed to stop, their mind suddenly unable to work properly. Then, "Shit," Nakamori whispered.

"I don't want you ratting about this to the police. The second you do, deal's gone." She could just feel the wicked grin grow at this point. "We'll be waiting." The phone beeps, signaling the end of the conversation. Then, she hears a click from the tape recorder as Kaito presses the button to stop it.

For a while, it was silent. Kaito, staring at a faraway wall, looked more somber than Aoko's ever seen him before. Her dad, she realized, had gone tense – a colorful stream of curses rambling off his lips in hushed, steady fury. She didn't know how she looked at the moment. That is, until she saw Kaito glance at her from the corner of her eye.

"Aoko," he breathed. "Are you okay?"

She glanced at herself at the mirror. Her face was pale, and her expression was contorted into uncontrolled guilt. "Somewhere out there," she gasped, "someone is suffering in my place."

Nakamori's eyes became wide. "Aoko that's not—it's not—it's those—we don't even know if this is real!"

"I think it is," Kaito whispered. He turned to the Inspector. "It would take a total nutcase to prank a cop like this. Either he wants to go to jail that bad, or it's real."

Nakamori's eyes narrowed, lip caught between his teeth. He had a point.

"Well there's still the off-chance that this is all just some kind of sick joke," Aoko whispered, teeth clenching.

"I hope it is," Kaito murmured. Then, glancing at Nakamori, "you should capture Kid, Inspector," he says. Aoko flinched in response, fearing what this little fiasco could do to Kaito. He doesn't wish for Kid to be captured. He never did.

"That's impossible," Nakamori said, more a breath than anything. "I've been trying to do just that for twenty years! He already pulled a heist yesterday. Next notice will probably come next week, and that'll be too late! Besides, let's say that if by some miracle, he sends it before the deadline. Who says that he won't escape like always? Especially now that I won't have the Task Force's support!"

"It isn't like you to give up, Inspector," Kaito says, smiling reassuringly. "You're the only cop who could measure up to Kid. Who says that you can't capture him at his next heist? This is a life that's at stake here, so you have to do it. You will catch him."

Aoko could feel a breath catch in her throat as she watched Kaito – for the first time in her life – root for her father over the thief that he supposedly idolized. Then, out of nowhere, her father dripped out a grim, humorless chuckle.

"You're a little ahead in thought, Kaito-kun. I don't even have a lead to finish the first step yet. How can I confront Kid without arousing suspicion from the police?" I'm completely deviating from the law, he thought. The values keeping me together are falling apart!

"You're right," Kaito whispered in hopelessness. However, this tone was something Aoko could identify. It was a part of the Kaito she knew – the tone he'd use during the stagnant seconds right before a sudden burst of magic. "How the heck can we capture Kid in such short notice without arousing suspicion?"

"Oh no, Kaito-kun. It's not we. It's me. This case is far too dangerous for a kid. You and Aoko forget about it." Then, turning to his daughter, he said, "Don't worry. We'll save her."

From behind him, she could see Kaito give her a goofy, lopsided grin. It will be okay.

For the first time since the phone call, she finally managed a genuine smile.

"I know."

Author's Note.

Hi hi! I have been reading too much crime fics lately. Anyway, FINALLY, this 2K+ monster is done! When I thought of the plot, I didn't think that each chapter would take this long. I mean, in my chapter summary, all that I wrote was "Kaito, Aoko and Nakamori receive phone call from kidnapper." Whew!