Words: 968

Trade

Chapter 08: Caution

Kuroba Kaito sneezed as he pulled his white suit – or tried to pull his suit closer to himself anyway, as it's difficult to do so when his good arm was already preoccupied for steering his hang glider, and his injured arm was still down for the count. While it's a good thing that he did put some heat pad on him to stay warm, with the chilly weather and wind blowing right into his face, it's not helping with his burning fever.

The paper inside the envelope had nothing written on it other than a residential address located in Beika, and to enter via the east-facing balcony. The address looked oddly familiar, though. To be as prepared as possible, he equipped himself with as many gadgets as he physically could and came in his full KID attire. It would be nice if he'd find Jii-chan there, though that's unlikely to happen.

Making a swift turn with his hang glider, he geared towards the street where said house is located. As it's still in the middle of the night, the entire residential area is calm and it's unlikely that anyone would noticed the white-clad phantom thief gliding through the sky. Trying to be as discreet as possible, Kaito landed on a neighbouring rooftop with a soft thud, and proceeded quietly towards his destination while scanning the nearby area for any sort of suspicious activity with his binoculars. What caught him by surprise was the fact that his destination appears to be none other than the residence of the famous high school detective Kudou Shinichi, as implied by the name plate embedded on the front gate of the house.

So that's why the address looked familiar... for one of his previous heists, which he disguised as Kudou Shinichi, he had memorized the general background details of the detective to deceive security. He certainly never expected to make a personal visit to the detective's house… and definitely not under the current circumstances. The house itself looked pitch black inside at the moment, so it'd be hard for him to tell if there're any traps waiting inside to capture him. The neighbouring house still had some dim lights on with signs of activity, so if he made a wrong move here he might solicit unwanted attention. Honestly, he wasn't even sure what to expect, though he had no choice but to proceed with utmost caution.

He couldn't even begin to fandom how the unfamiliar detective would be related to the suspicious blonde who is keeping Jii-chan captive. And if he remembered correctly, the miniature detective Edogawa Conan is a distant relative of Kudou Shinichi… is there any significance of their relationships to his current situation? All he knows is that his mind is currently too cloudy to ponder over the puzzle. With his undoubtedly worsening fever, it's already taking everything he has got just to figure out which one is the east balcony and to get over there without being spotted by anyone that could be watching.

Catching his breath as he settled on the balcony, Kaito checked around for any sort of sensors or hidden cameras and found none. The balcony itself was fully covered in dust and debris, with no signs of anyone else recently stepping onto it. The windows were completely covered with a thick curtain, so it'd be hard for him to tell if there's anyone occupying the room at the moment. Without wasting any time debating whether or he should stay put or enter the room, he grabbed one of his lock picks from his pocket and proceeded to picking open the balcony doors. If there is already someone waiting inside for him, then it'd be pointless for him to try to hide from them anyway.

Following the sound of a quiet click, Kaito slowly pulled open the balcony doors, half expecting to be assaulted by whoever waiting inside. To his surprise, the soundless room seems to be unoccupied. His forced entry didn't trigger any sort of alarm either. There's a thin layer of dust on the floor, which probably meant no one was here for at least a couple weeks if not more. As Kaito switched on his flashlight to check around, he realized that he's currently in someone's bedroom. Judging from the double bed and the bunch of high school textbooks stacked neatly on a desk next to a desktop computer, this is likely the teenage detective's bedroom. It seems the detective hasn't been to his room in ages, seeing how there's dust all over the books and computer as well. What's the meaning of leading him to this particular room? Is there some sort of riddle that he's supposed to solve here?

Just as Kaito was about to go through the items in the room for clues or anything unusual, he was interrupted by the noise of a door being shut downstairs. Holding his breath in anxiety as he positioned himself next to the bedroom door, he could tell that the footsteps were slowly climbing up the stairs and approaching his whereabouts. Without any second thoughts, he drew his card gun as well as a couple sleeping gas bombs in case he needed to knock out his assailant in favour of a quick escape. He hoped that his fever and his injured arm wouldn't be slowing him down too much.

Half a minute later, the bedroom door gradually opened, and Kaito instantaneously trained his card gun up towards the intruder – except there was no one at the other end of the barrel. He almost thought he was hallucinating about the sound of footsteps he heard earlier as a shocked gasp caught his attention from below–

"…KID?!"

–It was none other than the bespectacled petite detective who he just got away from earlier that night.

Afterword: Thanks for reading! Please review if you're still interested in this story ^_^

Updates will be sporadic due to limited time and energy… and the story is gonna be filled with plot holes and bugs because I'm obviously very lame and disorganized. Feel free to point them out and slap them in my face :V

I have no idea which direction Shinichi's bedroom balcony actually faces or whether or not his bedroom actually has a balcony lol. Just in case people forgot, Kaito (in this universe) does NOT know that Shinichi = Conan despite having disguised as Shinichi before.

~~~~~~~~~ *\^o^*\ *\^o^/* /*^o^/* Happy Birthday KAITO*/^o^*/ *\^o^/* *\^o^*\ ~~~~~~~~~~