The Anti-Gunman Plan (aka: No One Gets Hurt)

Point 1: Kaito needed more information. Basically all he knew was that some criminal and associated minions had killed oyaji. Which was more than he knew before, true, but still not very helpful.

Following said criminal after being shot may not have been the smartest plan, but he did find information. To be fair, he'd been a bit overwhelmed by the fact that he'd met the man who murdered oyaji. Apparently the guy went by Snake (that has to be a codename, part of a gang maybe?), and was looking for a gem called Pandora. Kaito wasn't sure he believed that any gem was capable of changing colors only under the light of the full moon (seriously, how would that work? moonlight was moonlight) much less crying tears of immortality. This Snake and whoever he worked for obviously believed it, and had been willing to kill oyaji for refusing to steal it. Even if there was only a miniscule chance Pandora was real, Kaito couldn't let criminals like these get their hands on it. He'd have to steal the jewel first.

On reflection, telling Snake and his gang that Kaitou KID would steal Pandora and destroy it probably hadn't been the smartest plan. The guy would be even more determined to kill KID now.

Point 2: Keep Snake (and minions) from killing KID

Since Snake was apparently convinced that the reappearance of KID meant he'd failed to kill oyaji, Kaito should be safe outside of heists. Although…how did Snake figure out that KID was Kuroba Toichi? If Snake somehow used a similar method and found out that oyaji really was dead, it could get dangerous for Kaito.

So 2a: Kaito would have to be extremely careful that no one could suspect him of being Kaitou KID.

Strangely enough, having to hold a heist at the same time as being on a date with Aoko, as well as once being handcuffed to Hakuba had pretty much cemented Kaito's innocence in the eyes of the Taskforce. Hakuba was annoyingly persistent, but as long as the Brit never got evidence, Kaito should be fine. He'd just have to make sure Snake didn't have a reason to suspect that someone had taken oyaji's place as KID.

And 2b: Keep from getting shot

Which was fine in theory; Jii-chan had contacts that could get a bulletproof vest made, but Kaito would need to practice with it before he could reliably be sure it wouldn't interfere with his movement enough to hinder any of KID's tricks.

Being able to predict Snake's M.O. would give Kaito a huge boost in getting away from the gunman (plus minions). With Jii-chan on surveillance, he should be able to get some warning for when and where Snake was likely to show during the heist. And being a nasty criminal probably meant Snake would avoid contact or discovery by anyone who might reasonably be able to arrest him or turn him in. It would be easier to get a jewel away from one person than steal it while needing to evade the police as well as KID. So the most likely method would be for Snake to continue to confront KID after the jewel had been stolen, as he was making his escape.

Point 3: Keep Taskforce (plus annoying detectives) oblivious

The idea was simple: if KID's (legal) opponents didn't know about the gunmen, they couldn't get hurt in the crossfire. The Taskforce was fairly simple to account for. Kaito could usually send them off course with an escaping dummy, or a flashy distraction. His detectives, on the other hand, were much more persistent. He'd need to start planning extra decoys and traps that would keep anyone away from the areas of the heist buildings that were most likely for Snake to confront KID. It would probably be good to plan to confront his detectives early in the heist whenever Jii managed to spot suspicious gunmen in attendance.

Point 4: Destroy Pandora

Obviously he'd have to find it first, but researching ways to destroy the thing couldn't hurt. It would also be good if he could keep Snake from knowing he'd found Pandora in the first place, but it probably wouldn't be good to count on it. Kaito would have to plan for extra countermeasures if he wanted to be able to escape when Snake knew he had Pandora.

Point 5 would then be backup plans. For everything.

Plans for if Jii didn't spot Snake and he showed up unexpectedly. Alternate escape routes if the ones Kaito had were too easily used against him. Making decoy gems to distract Snake. Hiding extra materials to improvise escapes. Several backup traps or ambushes for his detectives. Anything that might go wrong during or after the heist, Kaito planned for.

Point 6: Get Snake and minions arrested

This…Kaito didn't think he'd be able to plan for this, but it was a possibility. Nakamori-keibu and Hakuba were unlikely to listen to KID long enough for him to tell them about Snake. And that was if Kaito managed to find enough evidence to get the man (and whoever was involved with him) arrested. So…unlikely, but Kaito would try to keep an open mind. If he ever had the opportunity, he would take it.

A/N: This was inspired while trying to write tags on ao3 for my other work 'A Mysterious Absence', I really have no idea how.

So...hopefully it turned out worth reading...honestly I'm not very confident about this one. Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it!