Toichi gazed around the theater. It was empty now – even the stage manager had gone home an hour ago – but tomorrow it would be full, packed with people: fans and probably a few amateur magicians. They would all be hoping to see a legend, and he was only too willing to let his audiences see that legend, both during the day and after dark. After all, he had two reputations to uphold.

He paced the stage and crouched down, checking a trapdoor to make sure it was still in working order. There was something rather solemn and wonderful about being in an empty theater. It was quiet, yet you could be as loud as you wanted to. The seats were empty, but you knew they remembered and looked forward to the laughter and delight of an audience. It was oppressive and free, wrapped up in both memories and potential, and a hundred other delightful contradictions.

The sound of a door thudding shut made him look up. A woman had entered the theater, and was walking down the aisle towards him. It wasn't until she was very close to the stage that he recognized her.

"Sharon?"

"Hello, sensei!" She flashed a smile at him. "I was just in town, I thought I should drop in and say hi."

He returned the smile. "It's been years since I last saw you."

"I know. You look old."

"I'm not that old, am I?" He chuckled. "And you look just the same. What's your secret?" And she did look exactly the same, aside from a huge pair of glasses resting on her face. It was almost unnerving, like looking back into the past.

"Aah, I can't tell you that! A secret makes a woman a woman," she said, almost conspiratorially.

"Oh? Aren't men allowed to have secrets?"

Sharon almost looked a little sad, behind the smile. "They can try, but they're always too busy trying to figure out everyone else's to guard their own properly. They get found out, sensei."

Toichi made a few adjustments and silence fell once again around them. Satisfied that the trapdoor was working perfectly, he stood up. He offered a hand to his old apprentice and she took it, stepping up to the stage with him. He gave her a piercing stare. She really did look young, which was strange, because she was older than he was.

"Sharon, why are you here?"

"I just came by to say hello, I told you that."

"Then why are you in Japan at all? I know you and Yukiko-chan have kept in touch, but you cut off all contact with anyone else in Japan that knew you years ago. Including myself and my family. What are you involved in?" He had always held a fair amount of suspicion about that. Both his apprentices had kept in contact with him after they returned to acting, but Sharon had abruptly stopped calling or writing him or Chikage a year later. He had later discovered that most of her friends and contacts in Japan hadn't heard from her since around the same time. The only exception seemed to be Yukiko, who had still complained that calls from her fellow apprentice were always becoming less frequent.

"It's complicated, sensei." She was still smiling, but Toichi had played poker with her enough to know that the smile was a mask. He even remembered telling the two of them about his own masks, when Yukiko was getting particularly frustrated with trying to throw her voice. She had been very discouraged, and it had been written all over her face.

"You should know never to look frustrated or embarrassed when you make a mistake," he had lectured them. "You're both performers, actresses, so act. No matter how you feel, if you smile, no one will ever know."

And he couldn't help but feel that his lessons were being thrown right back in his face.

Sighing, Toichi turned to sorting through some props that had to be arranged backstage very carefully. It was something he wouldn't have trusted even Jii to do.

"I suppose," began Sharon slowly. "That I could tell you why I'm here." He didn't turn around. There was a faint rustling behind him. "After all, you're going to figure it out soon enough."

Another sound, except this was a familiar kind of click-click! that froze him on the spot. He slowly pivoted to face her. His suspicions were confirmed. The dark barrel of a gun stared back at him.

"You're with Them, aren't you?" he said quietly.

"I apologize, sensei, but a colleague started getting rather interested in my skills in disguise. He said they were remarkably similar to those of one Kaitou Kid."

Damn. So they had found him. He had always known they might, but he had been stupid. Not careful enough.

"I don't suppose you'd buy it if I said that's a remarkable coincidence, would you?"

"Afraid not."

A few moments passed. Her aim never wavered from his heart, but she didn't shoot. And meanwhile, Toichi was thinking faster than he had ever thought before.

"Chikage and Kaito – you won't hurt them, will you?" he carefully recited the last, cliché concerns of a dying man, while reaching for his back pocket very slowly…

"I won't. It's easy enough to tell my superiors that they don't know anything. Anyway, I don't like having to kill kids. And keep your hands where I can see them, please." He froze. Her eyes twinkled a little. "I'm quite aware that you probably have about twenty different tricks you could use on me if I gave you the chance. However, I'm not in the mood to deal with flash bombs, smoke bombs, sleeping gas, or whatever else you keep up your sleeves. As I was saying, though: Chikage-chan and Kaito-kun won't be hurt. Most operatives would kill them as well to tie up loose ends, but I won't. Why do you think I volunteered to do this job myself? When it comes down to it, Sensei, I might not really be on your side, but I'm not on theirs, either."

Toichi processed this, not breaking eye contact.

She continued. "But you see, the problem is that if I fail, someone else might be given the job, and they definitely would not be as nice about things."

Toichi let out a breath, the cogs of his mind still whirring. "I see. But you're still going to kill me."

"Not quite." The gun was lowered. "I'm going to let you arrange your own death."

He stared, uncomprehending. Then it clicked.

"You mean an accident… that your superiors will think you caused?"

"Bingo!" Still smiling, she put the gun away in an inside pocket of her coat.

"You're letting me get away."

"Of course not. Getting away is entirely up to you, and if you don't do it properly, I'll still send a bullet through your head, sensei or not." Her eyes were as cold as ice, and the smile had quite suddenly disappeared. "Your choice is between killing yourself or letting yourself be killed along with your family. If you are believed to be dead within 24 hours, then as far as I'm concerned, you're dead. The slightest sliver of doubt, and you're dead as far as you're concerned, too."

Toichi watched her. She was tense, and talented actress though she was, her hands were shaking slightly. A good poker face meant nothing if it was only your face. She was scared.

"Alright," he said.

"Alright?"

"I'll do it. I have a show tomorrow night. I'll arrange an accident then. Magic can be a dangerous business, after all." He was looking straight into her eyes. "Thank you for the warning."

"No… thank you." She offered no explanation. Quite suddenly the smile was back. "It was nice to see you, Sensei. Good luck with the show!" And with one last enigmatic smile, she hopped down from the stage and made her way back through the empty theater.

When the door thudded shut once more, Toichi couldn't help but laugh. Sharon was smart, and a good performer. She would only get better, he was sure of that.

Well, he had just been given a chance where he never would have expected to get one. He turned back to his props and started to arrange them a little differently. Now it was time to put on the most convincing show the world had ever seen.

A/N: Thanks for reading! This is another fic that I wrote ages ago and only got around to posting recently. Of course, this entire fic just leads me to wonder - what would Magic Kaito and Detective Conan be like if Toichi was alive? What would it be like if he was the one pulling heists? I have my ideas, but I bet you do too, so for now I'll just let you think about that. :P