"Coincidences mean you're on the right path."
- from Love Begins in Winter: Five Stories, by Simon Van Booy

. : COINCIDENTALLY FORTUNATE EVENTS : .
... "gūzen ni mo kōun no ibento" ...

a big hero 6 x detective conan x magic kaito fanfiction
feat. Conan and Kaito in post-BH6 and the Pandora Effect

One: Untitled

Disclaimer: I do not own Big Hero 6 nor Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito.

The heist started out like heists usually do.

A note. A riddle. A date and a time. A gathering, for the show. And then?

Screams and smoke and shouts and absolute chaos. Kaitou Kid was an happy expert in giving a hand to things like that, as regulars to the magic and mayhem knew all too well.

Confetti and profanities flew through the air as Kaitou Kid vanished in a cackling puff of smoke, the Teardrop Diamond clutched firmly in hand. Nakamori-keibu swore loudly at the fading laughter before he caught a glimpse of white rounding the corner. "He's headed for the left side of the building, don't let him escape!" the inspector roared to his men, and the entire horde of police officers chased after the phantom thief.

While the Task Force pursued what appeared to be the Kid, considering it wouldn't be the first time they were fooled by a motorized dummy, Conan turned away from the officers and dashed up the stairs instead. He knew the thief preferred flying off whenever possible - partially because of Kid's love of dramatics, he reasoned, and partially because it was really difficult to catch the guy once he was in the air without putting someone's life in danger - and the weather tonight was perfect for an airborne getaway. Irresistibly perfect.

Sprinting upwards to the higher levels of the building, Conan kept his steps as light as possible as he scaled the many floors. A couple minutes later, he paused beside the door led out to the roof. Even though he'd checked and found the door locked beforehand, it now moved easily at his touch, confirming that Kid had been planning to make his way up here eventually. In silence, turning on his night-vision lenses, Conan cracked the door open a fraction and peered outside.

Nobody was there. Carefully, Conan stepped through the doorway, closed it behind him, and crept across the shadows on the edge of the building. Picking out the far corner that put the moon at his back, Conan tucked himself into the darkness and waited, tranquilizer watch clicking open in preparation.

Not long afterwards, the door swung open again.

Kaitou Kid walked easily onto the roof in all his trademark white glory, tossing the diamond almost carelessly between his hands as he shut the door behind him with a backwards kick. Then, he proceeded towards the center of the roof, shoes sounding softly on the ground.

Conan raised his watch but hesitated before pressing the button, watching curiously as the thief stopped in the middle of the area, looked around, and then raised the diamond to the night sky. At first glance, it seemed like Kid was admiring the gem in the moonlight. Well, that was normal enough. He did so rather often. In fact, every time Conan had seen him, he'd always held up that night's prize like that, just before returning it…

But before he could continue that curious line of thought, the blue diamond inexplicably flashed a brilliant red color, like a ruby before a flashlight, shining fiercely.

Startled, Conan froze as the thief gasped and vanished the Teardrop Diamond with a swift sleight of hand. From his perspective, he could see Kid shaking slightly, the gem shining crimson within an inside pocket over his heart.

Eerily, the light it cast look very much like… blood. It was a startling image, especially for Kaitou Kid, whose policy centered so much around nonviolence. Startling to see the red taint his infamously white suit, from within no less.

Thankfully, the light faded quickly once it was out of the moonlight, taking away with it the disturbing red color.

Conan got to his feet, metaphorical gears turning in his head. "Kaitou Kid," he said, and the thief actually jumped, surprised, and spun around to face him. The moonlight glared harshly off of the monocle, but the other eye was visibly wide, blue, and shimmering with some sort of emotion, partially obscured under a faltering mask.

"Tantei-kun," came the obligatory but half-hearted reply.

Keeping his eyes on where he knew the gem to be, Conan asked slowly, "What was that?"

With a fluid shrug, Kid averted his gaze. Turning slightly to the side, he seemed to be puzzling over what to say for a moment, before opening his mouth - and suddenly stilled, both he and Conan registering the sound of footsteps pounding on the stairs.

If it hadn't already, it was around then the heist went completely sideways.

In a single second, Kid moved, his cape fluttering as he stood between Conan and the door, looking for all the world like he'd been in that spot the entire time, blocking Conan's line of sight. Or, he realized, blocking the line of sight of whoever was coming up.

The door slammed open with a loud clatter. "Kaitou Kid!" an unfamiliar voice shouted. "Hand over the jewel!"

Conan didn't see the speaker, but the voice didn't belong to any officer he knew. Probably didn't belong to any officer at all, actually. "Good evening, Snake," the thief greeted cheerfully, all traces of past emotions wiped clean from his expression. He put his hands into his pant pockets casually. "I was wondering when you and your goons would catch up to me! A bit slow tonight, aren't we?"

"Shut up!" 'Snake' snarled, and Conan's stomach filled with dread when he heard the horribly familiar click of a gun's safety being disengaged. Definitely not a police officer. "Hand over the diamond!"

"It's not the jewel you're looking for, you know," Kid said, slowly withdrawing his hand from his pocket, a gleaming gem in hand. A fake. Because the real one was sitting in the magician's chest pocket. Because the real one didn't glint in the moonlight like a normal diamond, it glowed red. But this Snake didn't know that, which was at least another point in Kid's favor, not that the said thief usually needed those points.

Making himself as small as possible, thankful that both Kid and the shadows concealed his presence, Conan set a finger on his right shoe's dial, and his other hand on his belt, reading to kick a soccer ball when needed. He refused to allow another person die before him. Not even Kaitou Kid; he never wanted the thief dead, just - stopped. Maybe not even that. "I'll check that for myself," Snake growled.

Red flickered at the edge of Conan's vision, and for a moment he worried that the gem was glowing again. That would have been disastrous, and would have probably given away that the gem Kid held was fake, if this man knew what he was looking for. It wasn't the gem, though. No, it was at the back of Kid's head, not his chest, and much too small in radius…

"No need for that." Kid dropped the fake and kicked it over, still unaware of the glowing red dot. "But suit yourself."

The answer hit Conan like a freight train - a laser sight. A sniper's laser sight. Right now, while the white-clad magician under the moonlight focused on the blatant threat in front of him, he'd never notice a sniper from behind. At least, not until it was already too late. Not to mention he was pointedly pretending that Conan didn't exist, so it was even more unlikely that the thief would look backwards.

There was no time to explain. Conan shouted, "Duck, Kid!" as he inflated his belt's soccer ball and kicked it before it could even hit the floor. Half-turning towards him, Kid opened his mouth, but all he saw was the ball hurtling towards him.

See, after the first few times of getting hit or even just getting grazed as it blasted by, he'd learned very well what the sparking blur of white and black meant: Pain.

So he habitually ducked, just as a bullet popped the ball where the his head had been only moments before.

For a heartbeat, everything stopped.

Then, Snake cursed and fired off his own unsilenced gun with a resounding crack!, but missed as Kid dodged safely away from the bullet, having started to move just a split second before the gunman fired.

Conan caught Snake in the crosshairs of his watch, fortunately out of the unseen sniper's range by pressing up against the low wall that outlined the roof. However, when the man currently on the roof turned his gun on him, Conan was forced to scramble away as a bullet bounced off the bricks where he'd been crouching.

"Tantei-kun!" Kid shouted.

To Conan's horror, the little red laser dot reappeared and slid across the ground, climbing Kid's frame until it stopped at his head, quivering slightly. "The sniper again, duck!" he shouted in warning, keeping himself pressed against the wall.

As it was, there wasn't need to worry; Kid was nothing if not agile and fast. He changed his path of travel to an unpredictable collection of movements, easily leaving the dot far behind him as he moved, and came up right beside Conan - safe from the unknown sniper as well. But not out of the fire, not yet. Holding out his cape slightly, Kid shielded the small detective from Snake's line of sight, although Conan didn't care for such protection, especially since his sight was now hindered, too.

"Oh, isn't that the brat everyone calls the Kid Killer?" Snake chuckled lowly, kneeling to scoop up the counterfeit gem and put it away without so much as a second glance at it. "Tell you what, little boy, we'll actually kill him for you, what do you think of that? You can go ahead and run on home."

"Go to he - mmph!" Conan's snappish retort was cut off when Kid clamped a gloved hand over his mouth.

"Don't," Kid warned, and Conan wasn't sure if he was addressing Snake or himself.

Speaking of 'Snake'... That was likely a codename. Which implied that he belonged to an organization or some sort. And he was wearing black... Conan hoped it wasn't the crows that he was chasing. It shouldn't be, since snakes were animals. And there wasn't any wine that he knew of that was called Snake, although admittedly sake sounded rather close -

Wait. Snake... What about snake wine? Alcohol infused with a snake's dead body. A revolting concept, doubtlessly, but alcohol all the same.

Conan's eyes widened, more bits and pieces clicking into place as Kid bantered away with the gunman, still protectively hovering over him. In the past, bystanders had reported strange sounds during Kid heists - gunshots. But they were always forgotten quickly. And Kid's sometimes jerky, erratic flight paths despite the occasional lack of helicopters - dodging bullets that only he knew about. Stealing the jewels and returning them, in such a fashion that it couldn't be anything other than a search pattern, the little notes saying that this wasn't the gem he was looking for, so he'd return them - trying to find something and take it, protect it, before someone less savory did. Maybe a group of such people - maybe something as extensive as a very specific Organization.

And it couldn't be two different syndicates operating separately, not so close. Not if even one of them was as big as the one that Conan knew. Turf wars would inevitably ensue, and many more mysteriously unidentified men in black would be found dead in the streets.

There was no doubt about it. And the realization was striking. Kaitou Kid was not stealing for the show.

He was stealing to actively undermine the organization, The Black Organization. Alone. Avoiding even the law - because who knew what infiltrators had allowed the crows to sink their claws so deep into the police?

"Kid," Conan said quietly, so softly that Snake wouldn't hear him. "You're fighting against Them?"

No verbal response, but Kid's smirk widened marginally, head tipping ever so slightly to the side in acknowledgement.

"-to shoot the brat," Snake was saying. "Your cape is rather flimsy protection, you know. Sure, you can glide on it all you want, but silk is easy enough for a bullet to punch through at this range."

"Not if you don't have the gun," Kid said matter-of-factly, raising his card gun and firing it in a single motion.

Unfortunately, the razor-edged projectile didn't manage to hit its intended target. Moving his arm, Snake jerked his firearm out of the way before the card could knock it out of his hands. In retaliation, he fired off a couple of bullets.

Kid grabbed Conan's arm and pulled him along as they avoided the shots, running alongside the low wall. However, it was only a matter of time before they ran out of space and were forced out into the open, where the sniper could take aim and shoot at them from whatever building he or she was hiding on.

Safety or not, getting pulled around was not fun, and Conan had enough of that already with Ran and Kogorou and even the other Detective Boys with their penchant for trouble. For the thousandth time, he cursed his status and the organization that had forced him into it.

With a quick twist, Conan freed himself from Kid's grip and darted a few steps away, keeping a careful eye on the gunman. Indigo blue eyes - only bare shades different from his own - whipped around to stare at him questioningly, and Conan said in a firm voice, "I don't need to be babied."

For a moment, Kid blinked at him, and then he smirked slightly. "Your size says otherwise, tantei-kun."

Before Conan could retort, he was interrupted by a bullet streaking by too close for comfort, causing pain to flare across his cheek. Reeling back, Conan pressed a palm on the injury. The sticky wetness he felt indicated that there was a bit of blood dripping down his face.

A grazing shot.

Kid twisted to face Snake, eyes flashing dangerously, but the other man spoke first.

"Tell the brat to stay out of this, we'll get to him later. Tonight, I'll get rid of you, once and for all!" Snake snarled at the thief, reloading his gun. However, before he could carry out that threat, in that brief moment where the man couldn't shoot them, Kid took aim with his card gun and let loose a consecutive stream of shots, forcing the assassin to step back or risk getting cut open by the relentless barrage.

"Nope, not tonight," Kid disagreed with a dangerous smile.

"Don't be so sure about that," Snake hissed, kicking away one of the cards that had embedded itself into the ground beside his feet. "Fire!"

Conan's eyes widened, realizing that when Snake had backed away, Kid had stepped forward to maintain distance, and now he was just enough in the sniper's range.

The thief realized it as well, but it was a moment too late - as he spun around, monocle's charm swinging wildly at the sudden move, a bullet slammed into his chest, and he stumbled.

Snake laughed and gloated when the kaitou pushed himself back into the safer shadows, leaning against the wall beside Conan, sinking onto one knee. However, Conan had noticed something else; there'd been an odd pinging sound when the bullet had hit, plus another muffled noise somewhere off to the the side immediately after.

Dare he hope…?

Kid hissed in a quick breath when Conan pulled his hands away from his chest, and broke into a cough - dry and bloodless, Conan noted with rising confidence. As soon as the thief's hands fell away, though, the Teardrop Diamond rolled out of the torn pocket and onto the thief's lap. Conan breathed a sigh of relief when the diamond slid away and revealed no blood beneath it, taking a second to thank Kid's apparently never-ending streak of luck.

"I'm okay," Kid murmured breathily, shaking his head and slowly rising back onto his feet. "Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Pan - the diamond, though."

The jewel clattered noisily onto the ground as Kid moved. Conan blinked and look down at it, realizing that the bullet had actually bit into the diamond somewhat before rebounding off to the side, thus tearing the diamond into two chunks plus a lot of shards, but… That didn't make much sense. Yes, bullets could in fact shatter diamonds, but the main word there was shatter.

Not redirect to the side after hitting halfway.

Red seemed to flash across the remains, which reminded Conan of the strange newly discovered property of the diamond, so he adjusted himself to stand over it in such a way that his shadow would hide it from the moonlight.

Approaching clunking steps reminded Conan of the gunman, and he turned towards the advancing Snake. His hand automatically went towards his watch to flip it open, but he stilled when Snake pointed his gun at him. "Brat," he growled, "move over. Now."

Conan did not move. In his peripheral vision, the pieces of the broken diamond glittered just behind his heels. Undiscovered so far, but there all the same.

"Now, brat. Unless you want me to kill you right here."

Conan still refused to budge, but Kid clamped a hand on his shoulder and pulled him slightly backwards, stepping forward once to stand beside him. "Snake, you're supposed to treat kids kindly," the thief said, sounding like he was lecturing, of all things. A grin was poised on his face again. "They'll only get madder and more vicious if you call them brats."

Snake responded by shooting at Conan, who instinctively rolled to the side for safety.

Belatedly, the error of his action clicked, and Conan scrambled to abort the movement mid-roll, but only resulted in slipping and almost tripping himself. He cursed as he leapt back up, knowing that the reaction would be too fast for him to stop.

Moonlight struck the Teardrop Diamond, and not even a heartbeat later, the jewel flared up in red, sparking, and then burst into a brilliant crimson light show that nearly blinded everyone on the roof.

Snake squinted into the light show, holding up a forearm to protect his eyes. "What the - is that-?"

Peering at the light as well, Conan found himself somehow transfixed by the jewel despite its bright display and the rather perilous situation, noticing something twisting within the core of the broken diamond. A deeper red than the light, a small pearlescent sheen in one of the pieces. A little sphere of something... other.

Unable to tear his eyes away, Conan shivered.

After a moment, the light dimmed to a point where someone could easily look at it straight-on without getting blinded, and the smaller pieces had stopped shining altogether. The largest chunk of the diamond had a pulsing glow instead of the previous steady light, and its original blue could be seen just under the red, as if it wasn't the diamond itself glowing, but something trapped inside it.

Snake roared, "Finally!" as he lunged forward, hands outstretched to snatch up the jewel, dropping his gun carelessly, some crazed look gleaming in his darkened eyes.

Before he could move more than an inch, though, Conan snapped out of his slight trance and took one step, lashing out in a powerful kick with shoes turned up to full power. There was a sickening crack as the bones in Snake's hand broke under the impact, the limb rebounding back to smack the man in the face.

While the assassin howled in rage and retreated half a step, Conan swooped in and scooped up the diamond - trying very hard to ignore the sudden chill in his body as he did so, and the way it felt like a beating heart - and pressed himself against the wall again.

Kid shot a card at Snake to ensure he'd be thrown fully off balance. Then, he blinked and looked at the doors.

Conan glanced over, noticing the sound as well; multiple sets of feet were tromping up the stairs, accompanied by a familiar yelling of profanities. The Task Force had finally caught up, apparently. Idly, Conan briefly wondered exactly what had occupied them for so long… Except if Kid's sudden increase in smiling - a wide, genuine grin - was any indication, it probably wasn't very delightful for the officers.

Poor police - the majority of them just couldn't keep up with Kaitou Kid's unorthodox methods.

Broken out of his thoughts by Snake attempting another grab in desperation, Conan dodged out of the way of the clumsy lunge. A bullet bit onto the floor right beside his sneaker, and he hesitated; he'd reached the edge of the sniper's range.

Snake snarled and grabbed his radio. "Don't shoot, you fool!" Snake barked into it. "He's got the jewel in his hands!" He glanced to the stairs, where the steps were rapidly increasing in sound. "And the police are coming, so we're pulling out!"

As if his words summoned them, the Task Force swarmed onto the roof half a second later, Inspector Nakamori leading them as always. However, they froze upon seeing the scene - a man in black picking up the gun at his feet, Conan at Kid's side.

The thin line of red on Conan's cheek, the bullet hole in the front of Kid's suit.

"You!" Nakamori shouted, overcoming his shock. "Drop the gun!"

Snake paid him no heed, but didn't shoot anyway. Kid grinned. "Can't risk hitting this thing, can you?" he sang, leaning over and poking at Conan's clenched fist, where the chunk of diamond lay. Just then, something shifted in Conan's hand, and he glanced at the jewel in his grasp. His eyes widened.

A little red oval-shaped gem sat against his palm, pulsating, and the remaining piece of the Teardrop Diamond had returned to its original blue hue. Two separate items. They clinked against each other when Conan tightened his grip on them.

Then, Kid intervened and gently took both items in hand, concealing the red oval up his sleeve with a little flick of his wrist before anyone else could see. Conan didn't point it out either. "Keibu," the thief greeted, warmly. Like they were old friends, rather than adversaries. In comparison to his interactions with Snake, they practically were. Kid picked up the other shards of the diamond as he continued, "It seems that this Teardrop Diamond was in fact the jewel that I have been looking for. However, there was an unfortunate accident, and I am pained to inform you that it will have to be returned in a condition not quite the same as the pristine one I have found it in. My humblest apologies, keibu."

"Dammit, Kid!" Confusion took the edge off of the insult, though. "What's going on?"

"I," Kid said, in clear but soft tone, "am now retiring. Kaitou Kid has achieved his purpose. So; with this, I bid you all, adieu." And he hurled the remains of the Teardrop Diamond at the inspector.

Many things happened at once.

Snake scrambled to catch the pieces, but the other Task Force members cut him off, dogpiling him like they once did to Kid. Nakamori fumbled with the shards, but caught the largest chunks. Kid stepped up on the railing, the small red oval in one hand and the card gun pointed at it in the other, and Conan impulsively grabbed the thief's sleeve, a question in his throat, knowing somehow that if he lost this chance to ask, he'd likely never have it again.

Two shots sounded at the same time.

A razor-edged card sliced at a red gem, and a sharpened projectile rebounded off a monocle.

A white-clad magician flinched, lost his balance, and fell.

A little detective fell with him, pulled along.

A police inspector ran to the edge, shouting.

A shattered monocle hit the ground, dozens of stories below.

But nothing else did.

Conan's vision exploded into a burst of ruby lights, and he suddenly felt like he was flying.

No, not quite flying. He'd experienced flight before, in hang gliders and paragliders and even the occasional flat-out falling, but this felt vastly different - it was more of a tingling weightless feeling, similar to a zero-g atmosphere. And windless, too.

Without warning, another flash of red brightness suddenly flared up, and even though Conan's eyelids were squeezed shut, the light still managed to burn itself into his eyes. Shortly afterwards, once it faded, he blinked the lingering spots out of his vision, and then noticed that everything he was seeing was devastatingly wrong.

All around him, instead of buildings and streetlights and the dark expanse of night skies, there were strange clouds floating past on a backdrop of purple tinted with red and blue, littered with distant lights and broken debris. Broken debris that flew around, as if it was riding on a gale of wind. Except wind didn't move chunks of concrete, and especially not wind that Conan couldn't even feel.

Where in the world was he?

Trying to get a better look around, Conan attempted to move out of his stomach-downward position, but there was a grunting sound and something held him tighter in place to stop him. Someone. White fabric rippled at the edge of Conan's vision, and he linked name to body.

"I think we just died," Kaitou Kid said, in an uncharacteristically small voice. "Yup. We're dead."

Pause. "Idiot," Conan snapped, ignoring the fact that he'd taken a moment to make sure he could feel both his own and Kid's heartbeat. "Neither of us will die that easily, you know."

"Well then, all-knowing meitantei-san, where are we?" Kid replied, challenging, sounding like he was pouting.

With an annoyed sigh, Conan turned slightly to the side to get a better view of the space around them. "Maybe the diamond contained a hallucinogenic gas trapped in the center, or something, and we were contaminated with it since both of us were in close range when it broke, except that's a bit-"

"Impossible?" Kid cut in wryly.

"If it's what's currently happening to us, then only improbable."

With a snort, Kid shifted Conan in his arms. The smaller boy glanced backwards to see that while Kid did have his hang glider deployed and they were in the right position for gliding, it wasn't moving. Neither were they. The thief noticed him looking at the glider.

"I opened it by reflex when we started falling," he explained, "except right now it seems a bit useless, so..." Kid eyed the wings skeptically, considering..

"Ah - don't, don't fold it," Conan said quickly, before the thief could do anything stupid. "There might be a draft that's keeping us suspended, and we're just so out of it that we can't feel it. For all we know, we might actually be flying normally."

"Scared of a little fall, tantei-kun?" Kid teased.

"Being careful," Conan corrected. "Especially since I can't see an end to this 'little fall' you speak of." He eyed the colored space below them warily, obscured with clouds. There was no clue to how deep it might be.

"Hm," was all the thief said. He shifted Conan's weight onto only one arm, and waved his free one in the air, slowly. "It's kinda hard to start and stop moving, but it's easier once it gets going," Kid mused. "Certainly doesn't feel like an illusion, and mind you, I know my illusions. Hey, is it just me, or do you feel cold?"

Conan narrowed his eyes. Actually, this place was a little too much like zero-g. Either a very realistic hallucination, or…

White flashed at the corner of his vision, and Conan realized that Kid was suddenly grinning. A lot. And shifting Conan's weight again, changing his hold on him. And starting to orient himself up, out of the gliding position they'd been in. Not to mention that the grin on his face was exceedingly suspicious; it didn't seem like he was even trying to hide it.

"Don't you dare," Conan warned, correctly guessing what Kid was about to do. "Don't. You. Dare. Kid, I swear, if you-"

Flashing his signature smirk at the detective, Kid flipped Conan upside-down, holding onto the boy's ankle, as he clicked a hidden button.

The glider collapsed.

"Kid!" Conan protested, but then froze in place.

Startlingly, nothing happened. They continued to float - as Kid stood up straight, his cape didn't settle against his back as it normally would, but hung suspended like cloth wings in slow motion. After a couple moments, the detective and thief even started to tilt slightly sideways, though it was hard to tell in the lack of relative location and gravity.

Conan scowled up at Kid, ignoring the indignity of being upside-down. Which was rather easy to do, since from his perspective, Kid was the one upside-down. "You idiot, that was dangerous!"

"You're dangerous," Kid muttered, and gently tugged the ankle he was holding in a slight arc to set the detective back in the correct orientation. Conan flailed briefly, but ended standing - floating - right side up. By himself.

Letting go, Kid grinned haughtily at the smaller boy in an I-told-you-so sort of manner. Conan bristled in return, opening his mouth to retort - suddenly it occurred to him that the thief didn't have his monocle on, and without the asymmetricality, it was all too obvious that he was far too young to have been stealing gems for over twenty years, and looked far too much like himself - Conan never got the chance to speak, however, as he caught the sight of something metallic hurtling towards them at an alarming rate. From Kid's sudden tension, he'd probably noticed it as well. Deducing in a split second that they must've floated into the path of whatever intangible wind that was keeping the debris moving around, Conan cursed and tried futilely to move out of the path of travel, waving his limbs about.

As expected, his position changed only a fraction of a centimeter. Kid grabbed Conan's shoulder, one hand in his jacket's inner pockets, likely looking for an item to get them out of the way. A grappling hook, maybe.

Unfortunately, he'd only just pulled the item out when the chunk of metal - dirtied with age, shaped like a capsule, and something purple on it - slammed into them.

There was a momentary blur of colors - red flashing, flaring, like a screen - bending and cracking and sparking - metal screeching and grinding against energy, power, magicnotmagic - shattering and suddenly he couldn't breathe, something tugging and pulling his body inside out, draining away the air - lingering red finally crumbling away - could not breathe -

A subtle shock flashed through his body as something, everything around him changed.

Oxygen rushed back into his lungs as the unfamiliar pressure vanished, leaving behind only ice in his veins and dizziness in his head. In the same instant, gravity returned with a vengeance.

His head jerked and smacked into something, and he blacked out.

Less than half a minute later, something zapped Conan in the arm.

The shock wasn't that large - more than static electricity but less than, say, a taser - but it was enough to snap him back to sudden wakefulness.

"Ow," someone complained. "Tantei-kun, stop shocking me!"

Kaitou Kid. "Who's shocking who?" Conan muttered, realizing that he was lying on the ground. With a small wince, he rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up, ignoring the slight twinges of stiffness in his limbs.

"I'm shocking you," Kid agreed full-heartedly, "but you're not supposed to shock me back. That's just mean."

"And you're the incarnation of niceness, I'm sure," Conan replied dryly as he looked around. The thief crouching right in front of him, an echo of a smile on the his face. Not the usual impenetrable mask that he usually wore - not by far. The false smile was flimsy enough that even the most thick-headed of all the Task Force would be able to see through it without much work. However… "Do you have spare monocles just hanging around?"

A seemingly careless shrug was his answer, the replacement monocle glinting. And then, "Well, the whole Memories Egg thing was annoying."

Oh. Conan blinked, briefly recalling the heist. Yeah, that made sense. Still, it didn't explain why he looked so - spooked, for the lack of a better word. If anything, wouldn't the thief be relieved at having a part of his costume back?

"… Also, who in the world are those two?" an unfamiliar voice asked from somewhere a little off to their right. "What even is that guy wearing, some sort of stage performance outfit?"

Getting to his feet and resigning himself to another play of I'm just an innocent kid, ahaha, and half-wondering how Kid would wiggle his way out of this one, Conan turned to face the speaker - and couldn't help but freeze, eyebrow raised.

A group of five people, all wearing suits. At least, he assumed that the blue, three-eyed monster was a costume and not what the person actually looked like. There was also a tall person in green who was even darker skinned than Hattori, a girl in light purple with a purse, another girl in yellow with disks, and a smaller boy (but still older and taller than 'Conan' was) wearing a deeper indigo and a saddened look. With a big red - glove? - in his arms. Aside for the boy and the monster costume, the rest looked like college students.

Except they were all wearing weird suits. And none of them were wearing anything like Kid's suit, but actual, mechanical, high-tech suits.

Seriously. And they had the gall to chew out Kid, of all people, for his getup?

Then, it clicked that none of them seemed to recognize neither Kid nor himself. Conan wasn't exceedingly widely known, of course, with his age, but Kid on the other hand - everyone knew the Phantom Thief 1412, Magician Under the Moonlight, Kaitou Kid. Even outside of Japan; hello, international criminal? In fact, the thief practically made it a point that everyone knew him. It was just the sort of thing that he'd flaunt smugly about while waving at the police with jewel in hand.

So why did this group of people not know him?

Awkward silence ensued as Kid stood beside Conan, the two of them staring at the five strangers, who looked about as comfortable as they did.

In other words, not at all.

"You do realize that once this blows over, Ran-neechan will never let Conan-kun attend one of your heists ever again, right, Kid?" Conan asked drily, the thought having suddenly occurred to him.

"Not if the notice is sent to your room!"

"Debateable."

"Hm. I suppose that's true. Not if the notice requires your presence!"

"I'm sure you're well-acquainted with the idea of disguise, Kid."

"Well, not if-"

"Er," the one in the monster costume interrupted, "did you just call the older guy a kid?"

Conan brightened, sliding fully into his childish facade, and pronounced chirpily, "Yeah, because he's the Kaitou Kid! Call the police and arrest him now!"

"What the twerp means," Kid corrected, not-so-subtly stepping on Conan's shoe, "is that I'm dressing up as Kaitou Kid. I'm a huge fan of his, so I was just playing in character. Guess he got too far into it, huh?" he added, bending over to ruffle Conan's hair, to his annoyance.

"I will tranq you and kick you off of a building at full power," the detective hissed, delighted when the thief stiffened and stopped stepping on his shoe in response.

"Does anyone know who this 'Kaitou Kid' is?" the monster costume asked, turning from side to side to look at his friends. "Because I don't."

"I don't think so," the lady in light purple and red said.

"Nope," announced the woman in yellow.

"Don't look at me," returned the man in green. "I haven't a clue."

The boy in purple only shrugged.

Hilariously (and yet not very surprisingly) enough, when Kid gaped, he looked like he was truly offended that they didn't know who he was. "Seriously? Guy in white, wears a monocle, sends out invitations to the police for his heists? Search him up! He's the most popular thief ever!"

"And you're dressed exactly like him, how suspicious," Conan added in a low mutter, ducking safely away from another swipe aimed at his hair.

"We can search that up later," the man in the green suit said before anyone else could respond. "First things first, I think we need to get you both checked into the hospital. It's a miracle that you're both healthy enough to be standing right now - there's another ambulance on its way, since the other one already left with Abigail, Krei, and Callaghan."

Conan blinked, trying to think back. The only reason that guy would say such a thing would be if he knew the two of them had been in a dangerous situation. But if they didn't know Kid, then how would they have known about the fall at the heist? And why would there be other ambulances, with other people hurt? "What are you talking about?" he asked, wary.

"The portal, of course," said the lady in light purple answered, sounding puzzled. "Actually, how'd you two get in there, anyway? And how long have you been there?"

Conan opened and closed his mouth, momentarily wordless. Kid cut in for him, asking tightly, "What portal?"

"The one you just escaped from," the woman in yellow deadpanned. "You know, big, circular piece of revolutionary scientific technology, previously ruined by a demonstration gone wrong, recently reconstructed with a horde of nanobots? Likes to suck things up and lose them forever in some sort of intermediate space unless we get lucky?"

"I have literally no idea what you're talking about," Conan replied flatly. But something still felt wrong. What was it…? Hesitantly, he asked, "Can you - um, where exactly are we?"

"San Fransokyo, of course," the lady in light purple responded, now a bit worried. "At a new Krei Tech facility."

That… made no sense. First of all, what was a Krei Tech facility, and who in the world would mash San Francisco and Tokyo together into that sort of name? And it was way too bright - wait.

He looked up.

The sun nearly blinded him when it was supposed to be the moon.

"Kid, if this is one of your illusions, I will kick a brick at you," Conan warned, turning his eyes to Kid.

"I'm afraid while it would be fun to watch you go crazy from this sort of thing, I did not do this," the thief responded, reassembling his mask of false emotions as he continued, "And call me by my name, Conan-kun. Say it with me - Kaito-niichan."

"Fine, Kaito-niichan," Conan rolled his eyes as he spoke, deciding it to be in his best interests to play along for now, "since you're older, you should know why it's suddenly daytime outside when we were taking a walk at around midnight night less than a half-hour ago, and where on earth this 'San Fansokyo' city is, right? And what a Krei Tech facility is!"

"You're a snappy kid," 'Kaito' sighed, but he seemed not to have an answer either. "Excuse me, but where is - er - 'San Fansokyo' in relation to Beika?"

Collective blinks. "What's Beika?" the man in green asked.

"Beika City?" Kaito tried again, but still received only head-shaking and confusion. The thief sighed, and then resigned himself to, "Hospital's fine, then. As long as we can get a map there."

"Of course," said the lady in light purple. "Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves yet! Sorry about that. I'm Honey Lemon."

The person in the monster costume visibly perked up. "I'm Fred!" he announced. "And this is Wasabi" - pointing at the man in green - "and this is Gogo" - the woman in yellow - "and that's Hiro!" - the youngest boy with the huge red glove.

"… Nice to meet you?" Conan offered weakly, brow raised. Most of those sounded more like nicknames than actual names.

"The other ambulance is about here already," Wasabi noted, glancing across the street to where the wailing sirens seemed to be coming from. "We'll see you at the hospital then, I guess."

Conan nodded slowly. "Thanks," he said. Kaito echoed him, after a second.

When the emergency vehicle arrived, the five of them accompanied the detective and thief to the ambulance, but were too large as a group to go with them, so they simply waved them off.

At some point, Hiro was pushed to the side by paramedics, and he stumbled against the side of the ambulance. The glove in his arms banged against the metal as well, and although everyone recognized that it happened, it soon slipped their minds. Not a single one of the five newfound heroes noticed that the glove's fist had loosened ever so slightly on impact - just enough that a little green chip could slip free.

None of those five noticed when it clattered to the ground, nor when, by the time the ambulance drove off, it vanished.

Author's Note:

Goodbye productivity, hello plot bunnies.

Special thanks to nikudounatsumi and everyone else at Poirot Cafe for the encouragement! And InsanityOwl.

Yes, this is going to be a multi-chappie, although I'm not sure how long it's going to be. Even less so than Without Mortality, for which I at least have a vague plan and outline for. This is going to be a walk in the dark, how fun!

Thank you for reading, and I very much appreciate reviews!