Archive of Our Own

Ran had been looking for Shinichi-as-Conan after school again. 

He was okay, he just … didn’t want to see her cry. She had been doing a lot of that on and off for the past few weeks lately thanks to him. Yes, because of Shinichi-as-Conan, not Shinichi-as-Shinichi for a change. Unfortunately, he was no stranger to making Ran cry as himself, but this was one of the few times she was crying over Conan. He just wanted to forget about it all and let everything continue on as normal as they could in his given situation. But that was hard to do when every time Ran looked at his shrunken form, she was reminded of the Terrible Things and her eyes would start welling up with tears. So, the easiest solution was simply for her to not see him. Of course, it wasn’t fair to Ran. She’d worry and start interrogating his friends, his teachers, and anyone on the streets if they’d seen him after school. But if Shinichi didn’t want to be found, he knew of a few clever ways to avoid being found. 

She was worried, but at least when she was worried, she wasn’t crying, and that was enough for Shinichi to keep sneaking out of class an hour early to hide from anyone who could reveal his whereabouts to the worrying girl after shooting her a quick text that he was going to be out late the second her classes ended. He hung around a warehouse by the port yesterday, keeping an elderly lady who fed the seagulls company. The day before that, he was taking the outer rail lines all around Tokyo, taking care to keep his face out of sight of station security cameras. And the day before that, he had been taking shelter at an empty newspaper stand on the outskirts of Beika where the old man who tended it let him charge his phone. He would always make it home after nightfall. Late, so everyone else had already eaten and he wouldn’t have to see her sad tears at the dinner table. So he didn’t have to see Kogoro’s grim-set lines, unsure how to talk to his daughter about recent events and not wanting to set her off her crying himself. So he didn’t have to witness Kogoro’s restless pacing back and forth, unsure if he was in any position of authority to offer help to the guardianless child. Shinichi-as-Conan was being normal about everything, so why couldn’t they? It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t like anybody died. The outcome was even expected. Or at least, Shinichi expected it. He knew how the world worked and the limitations of the law. So why couldn’t she just stop crying? He knew looking at Conan was the direct source of Ran’s sadness, so he couldn't help but feel guilty about it. Really, it was better for everyone this way if he just stayed away for the time being until people stopped looking at him like that. 

Shinichi kicked some wayward pebbles off his path for good measure, stuffing his hands into his pockets in frustration. He wished he could juggle a soccer ball to help organise his thoughts with the mindless activity, but he didn’t want to attract any attention from awe-struck kids. They would be much too curious and be too enthusiastic and interactive for his liking.

To avoid walking into people on the streets, Shinichi was crossing between long stretches of grass, keeping close to the shadows and treelines in order to stay inconspicuous. Some old ladies who spotted him thought he was a delinquent kid up to no good, so they steered clear and he preferred it that way. The leafy late summer foliage provided plenty of visual cover and the chirping crickets helped mask his audible presence. The muggy evening heat was annoying, but at least any forms of physical discomfort provided a pleasant constant stream of sensational feedback to distract him. The soft, springy grass soon gave way to sloppy mud and Conan had to hop between the dry islands of exposed root system to reach the shadowed base of the tree where he could mope his new usual ritual of self-pity in a bit of relative privacy. 

Shinichi took out his phone with a heavy-hearted sigh, scrolling through the endless messages Ran had sent his Shinichi number. He was at a loss. He just didn’t have any advice to give her in either one of his personas. Ran couldn’t speak to ‘Conan,’ he was avoiding her. So, she instead asked Shinichi if he could help Conan on her behalf, since they were ‘so close’. That would be quite difficult, on the account of Shinchi being Conan himself, outside of just giving himself an ineffectual pep talk. And even if he were somehow a separate individual from his seven-year-old alias, it was simply a matter of what could, and what couldn’t be done about the given situation. And nothing, not even Shinichi, had the power to help Ran, help Conan. Help just wasn’t possible. At least, not the kind of help that she wanted, no matter how many tears Ran shed. Shinichi had already thought it over a thousand different ways and the Mouris had thought it over a thousand more in the attempt to help ‘Conan’. But it just wasn’t the way the world worked today. There was nothing to be done.

As Shinichi tucked his phone into his back pocket, he suddenly became aware of voices coming from the other end of the path, and they were headed directly his way. Dammit, he hadn’t been paying attention, and now he was about to be seen. He quickly checked his watch and started scanning around for better visual cover. It was too late for children to be wandering around by themselves at this hour. If he was spotted, they’d surely take him to the local police station to report a lost child, and then he’d be sent home. He … he wasn’t ready to go home. He would go home, he knew he couldn’t exactly avoid seeing Ran forever, but just … not yet. 

They were coming too close for him to dash off to another hiding spot, he had to stay put. Feeling his way blindly in the dark, Shinichi inched around the circumference of the tree deeper into the darkness until the wood cinched into a little hollow. It wasn't particularly deep, but it faced away from the moonlight, shrouding the depression in shadows. It was far from perfect, but it would do. Quickly, he pressed his tiny body into the cramped void, apologising in his head to the poor tree as he broke off soft chunks of bark in his haste to play the part of a particularly well camouflaged lizard. 

Heart thundering in the core of the hollow, Shinichi started when he felt his hand brush up against something thin and fluttery. Webs? No, it wasn’t nearly sticky enough to even be a cobweb. It was … a thin sheet of fabric? Maybe a lost picnic blanket, he guessed. But it was too dark in the hollow to clearly tell. He tried to pull it down in case it brought attention to his location flapping in the wind, but found it snagged high up in the branches. He couldn’t pull it loose, not from this angle without snapping said branches which would surely attract more attention than the fabric itself. Shinichi could hear the voices coming even closer. Cursing, he didn’t have time to think, only act. Before he could reconsider, Shinichi threw the sheet of fabric over himself inside the hollow like a curtain holding it fast, hopefully obscuring him further into the hollows of the tree and shielding him from view. His warm breath permeated the fabric, each soft exhale absorbed quickly and dispersing into the woven folds which he clutched all the more closer to his shrunken body. 

The voices drifted closer and closer, Shinichi strained to listen. They were male voices, and sounded … somewhat familiar. Heavy boots crunched along the pebbled path, signalling their imminent approach. Risking a peek, Shinichi pushed aside the cloth by his face to get a good look at them and activated the zoom and night vision functions on his glasses. There were two men, one rather young, and the other around middle age, both wearing MPD issued riot gear. But that was strange, what did police need riot gear all the way out here for? 

Actually, Shinichi wasn’t exactly sure where ‘here’ was that he had wandered in his absent-minded stroll. He had taken care to remain in Beika so he wouldn’t take too long to get back, but hadn’t kept track of his pathing. Quickly, he surveilled his immediate surroundings with his night vision. Shinichi took note of the well-tended topiaries, the rows of perennial flowers and a loose-pebble footpath that looped around a central pond decorated with reeds. Through the dark, he spotted a familiar sign near one of the exits, and his night vision allowed him to make out the text. It seemed his late night stroll had taken him into the heart of Haido Park. But what were officers in riot gear doing near Haido Park? They weren’t looking for him, were they? Maybe Ran had finally caved early and phoned the police for a man hunt on him. But that didn’t make sense either, civic duty officers wouldn’t require riot gear, and they would’ve been calling out his name if they were a search party. The officers had to be here on some other business. Whatever their mission, Shinichi was about to find out as their animated voices carried over to his hiding spot.

“That damned Thief.” One of the officers complained, unintentionally answering Shinichi’s unspoken query about their business. There was only one Thief the law spoke of that used the title ‘thief’ like a title of respect. The officer himself sounded like he gargled gravel for breakfast and downed it with a helping of eighties high octane police dramas typical of the previous decades. Shinichi let the fabric fall back over his face and retreated back into the shadows, lest the man catch the reflective gleam of his glasses in the night. 

“I don’t care if he always returns the jewels he steals. Doesn’t KID know half the police budget goes towards trying to stop his thefts in the first place?” The officer scoffed, his incredulous ranting carrying over the din of summer wildlife to Shinichi’s hiding spot. “The helicopters, the manpower, the armada of police cars specifically on call for him!”

Shinichi strained to listen as they passed, trying to gauge their relative distance.

“Not to mention, all the custom security measures and traps Nakamori-keibu puts in place on Suzuki-san’s request specifically to trap KID,” the voice of the officer’s companion added. It was more youthful, less battle-weary and undamaged by on the job smoking. If Shinichi had to place a guess, he’d say the senior officer was somewhere in his late forties and his companion was barely pushing twenty. 

“When I entered the Police Academy, I wasn’t picturing my friends and I getting screened via cheek pinch every hour to make sure one of us isn’t KID, or that our resources would be spent ordering custom-built safes for the heist targets, it’s a right black hole of investment if you ask me.”

They were … Division Two members? Shinichi wracked his brain. He could vaguely recall the Detective Boys talking about a Kaitou KID announcement at school before he had left. Something about a luxury brand convention being held at Haido City Hotel and a diamond encrusted handbag being the highlighted display. They had asked if Conan had wanted to go, but he knew that a heist would be one of the first places Ran would’ve looked to try and find him. As such, he quickly disregarded it as an option and forgone the heist. 

But what were Division Two doing here? If he recalled correctly, the heist had been due to occur at six o’clock on the dot. It was now nearing nine, the heist should’ve been long over at this point. Not to mention Haido City Hotel was a good fifty minutes east of the park by foot. Shinichi licked his finger and lifted it to the air beyond the confines of his fabric shield. Haido City Hotel was built at a height of a hundred and thirty five metres. Given the direction and strength of the summer wind … If Kaitou KID had escaped via hang glider as was customary, then at a motor assisted glider speed of twenty-seven knots, the seasonal wind would have taken him … Not too far from Haido Park, incidentally. It would have taken him directly to Haido Port. Oh dear, it seemed perhaps Division Two were probably investigating this location as a possible rendezvous point with Kaitou KID’s accomplices, and as usual came to the wrong conclusion and barking up the wrong proverbial tree. KID would have landed ten degrees North of here and made his getaway by sea. 

Even if KID had for some reason come to Haido Park for his getaway, the heist would have wrapped up at around half past six. It would’ve taken KID only seven minutes to land at Haido Park at wind speed, ten if wind conditions were significantly weaker than at present. KID should’ve been long gone by now, and these officers were here far too late. Typical, Shinichi smirked. Really, if he had been in Nakamori’s ear, he’d have had both Haido Park and Haido Port roped off well in advance to put the thief on the ropes. 

“Ah, don’t let the Inspector hear you saying that,” the senior officer huffed. “As much as I hate to admit it, we need to splurge as much as we do on wild KID chases because it entertains the general public. The more visible news about what a good fight we put on chasing KID, the more the board funds the MPD. We need to put on a good show or the whole branch could lose some serious funding.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” his companion grumbled, though he didn’t sound nearly as put out by that information as Shinichi would’ve expected. If anything, he sounded mildly amused.

“Anyway, keep a sharp eye out, Officer Hikaru. KID’s decoy landed somewhere around here, and it’s up to us to find any sign of it.”

“Sir, yessir!” Chirped Hikaru flippantly and without a note of gravitas.The two officers split up from one another and began searching the area in earnest, pulling aside the brush and checking for clues.

Shinichi froze, realising his mistake. Division Two weren’t here looking for KID himself, they were collecting evidence for lock up. Evidence that would include remnants of KID’s magic tricks like his signature puppet decoys. Evidence like- Shinichi silently gasped. He quickly inspected his fabric cover. He felt along its edges in the dark, reaching one of the corners where he found a custom-made quick-release clasp. There was no doubt about it. It was a white, lightweight magician’s cape. Kaitou KID’s cape. Or, one of them at least, as Shinichi had no idea how many KID owned since he dressed up several of his decoys in the things. Somehow, Kaitou KID’s decoy cape had ended up in the very tree Shinichi had been taking shelter in. Those two members of Division Two were looking for KID’s cape, and they were going to find it in Shinichi’s hiding spot. All Shinichi could do to avoid detection now was pray. The cape was in the thief's signature flashy white shade; it wouldn’t be too hard to spot if the wrong beam of moonlight found its way into the hollow, or if Nakamori’s men had any competency. But perhaps from within this hollow if Shinichi kept very, very still, it might just escape their notice.

That hope was quickly dashed when the younger of the two officers, Hikaru, called out, and his voice had moved unmistakably closer, much closer to Shinichi’s hiding spot. “Hey, I think I see something!” 

Shinichi’s breath caught in his throat like black, tar-tipped thorns. It sounded like Hikaru was just around the tree. There was a rustling as Hikaru reached up with his police baton to push a few branches out of his way while Shinichi’s stomach tied itself in knots. “I think I see something stuck up there.”

Shinichi kept silent, praying against hope that the Hikaru had been mistaken while he plastered himself more firmly to the grub-bitten bark and that the dappled moonlight provided enough shadow to swallow him from view. His fingers gripped the edges of the fabric, pulling it more firmly against himself. He held his breath, for fear the sound would give away any indication of his presence while the officer prodded at the branches. When the tree yielded nothing, the prodding stopped and the park fell silent once more. Shinichi didn’t dare move, as he had yet to hear the footsteps of the officer leave. Just give up. Leave. Go look somewhere else-

Shinichi bit back a silent gasp as a dark, padded gloved hand reached around the tree base and grasped blindly in the dark, feeling at the edges of the hollow Shinichi had hidden himself within. There was nowhere to hide. From this cramped limited space, it reminded him too much of a cat pawing at a mouse hole, and he was the mouse.

“Yeah, there’s something in the space behind this tree. It’s a bit cramped without taking off any padded gear, but I think I can reach around it.”

If Shinichi were actually his current altered physical age he might have screamed. Almost nothing was more terrifying than seeing a large, uninvited hand locate the edge of the fabric, grasping a handful and start to pull. It reminded him too much of waiting with bated breath to be discovered by Gin while hiding in the confines of the claustrophobic safes. It reminded him too much of being grabbed at in the dark.He couldn’t help it, Shinichi reflexively held fast to the edge of the fabric he still had in his hands and pulled back, desperate to stay hidden. The foreign fingers holding the edge of the fabric tensed, surprised at the returning tension, but Shinichi held firm. If he lost the fabric, he’d be exposed and out in the open. With his teeth, he twisted his watch on his wrist to face the edge of the fabric even as he knew he couldn’t hope to tranquilise the officer through all his protective riot gear.

There was no way any member of Division Two wouldn’t recognise him as Conan. He was the household name KID Killer. They’d instantly know who he was and they’d call Nakamori, who’d call Kogoro. Kogoro would call Ran, and Ran would come pick him up. Her face briefly flashed in his mind’s eye. She reached into the tree hollow, gently prying him from the quiet privacy of the night to clutch him to her chest as fat, wet, heartbroken tears fell from her eyes, soaking into his shirt and his heart shattered, knowing it was him that made her hurt, seeing him that made her cry like that all over again. He couldn’t stand it. Looking at him made her cry, seeing her cry made him remember, and he just wanted to forget. All he wanted to do was just forget. He … he didn’t want to see Ran. And nothing was more true in that moment. The single thought became a mantra that crescendoed into a white wall of static that enveloped Shinichi’s mind. He had lost control of his breathing and it was coming in short bursts, failing to take in oxygen even as his burning lungs were starved of it. He didn’t want to remember, don’t make him remember, don’t make Ran sad because if he makes Ran sad he’ll remember. Seeing her cry makes him think of why she’ll cry if she sees him. If Ran SEES HIM-

He didn’t want to see Ran. He didn’t want to see Ran! he didn’t want to see Ranhedidn’twanttoseeRan

HEDIDN’TWANTTOSEERAN

The wall of mental static became a swirling vortex of thick, fritz-like sludge sucking him under its surface. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t feel his fingers holding the edge of the cape in a tight. white-knuckle grip and he couldn’t hear anything beyond the incessant high pitched, scratchy fuzz in his ears blocking out everything else. He thinks he’s moving his tongue against his teeth in fractions of sound that might have made up words in a whispered plea. He couldn’t hear anything happening around him as he could do nothing but wait for his inevitable discovery. The gloved fingers inched further into his hiding space and found his tiny, clenching fists knotted in the fluttering cape snagging the fabric. 

“Aha! Gotcha!”

Shinichi screwed his eyes shut, preparing himself for the worst. For the tense fabric to be yanked unceremoniously from his grasp and to be pulled kicking and screaming out into the open moonlight against his will.

But the air remained tranquil.

Miraculously, the questing hand grabbing the cape loosened its grip and Shinichi felt the curtain of fabric fall back over the hollow. Heart pounding rabbit-fast, Shinichi dared to open his eyes again, confused. Instead of being confronted with newly exposed moonlight, the shadows of the cape still loomed over him, shielding him safely from the outside world. The telltale crack of branches being disturbed and fading heavy footfalls signified Officer Hikaru’s retreat, shouting excitedly.

“Look what I found in the tree!”

But, he hadn’t taken anything from Shinichi’s tree-

“Holy hell, is that KID’s hat?!”

Hat? Confused, Shinichi looked up into the branches of the tree above the hollow. There were no signs that a hat had ever been perched in the tree, let alone that Officer Hikaru had obtained it from there. That was that officer going on about? Why had he let Shinichi go-

“Looks like,” Hikaru carried on, sounding cheery as though he had happened upon a lucky five yen coin. ‘It was stashed inside a hollow!”

His partner sounded amazed, openly oohing and ahhing at the mysteriously procured Kaitou KID’s top hat. Shinichi was burning with curiosity, he almost risked a peek from his hiding spot, but his stomach was still twisted up in knots and he didn’t trust himself to not puke if he moved from the hollow. And wouldn’t that have entirely defeated the mercy of the younger officer allowing him to stay hidden. 

“That’s an amazing find! Was there anything else in that tree? Maybe we should look more thoroughly, we might even find KID’s decoy in there.”

He felt his heart threaten to beat out of his ribcage once more, tension returning in spades as the crunch of the pebble footpath indicated the approach of the other officer. However, there was an opposing shuffle of footsteps as Hikaru situated himself between the other officer and Shinichi’s tree. 

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary, Senior Officer Imai!” dismissed Hikaru, with a confident air of certainty that could have risked sounding impudent coming from the junior officer. “There was only a small gap in the tree, nothing else could have fit in there, let alone a whole KID decoy. The wind must have blown the decoy’s hat into the tree when it flew by.”

He couldn’t take the uncertainty any more. Steeling himself, Shinichi cautiously risked a peek from behind the cloth out to the path. But it was no good, all he could make out from this angle were the bulky reflective silhouettes of the geared up officers under their helmets. If not for the closer officer actively standing in the way of the other, Shinichi wouldn’t have even been able to tell which of them was meant to be Hikaru.

“Really? That’s a shame. I was hoping we could find the decoy, if not KID himself…” The other officer, now identified as Senior Officer Imai, muttered.

“Haha, yeah. A real shame. But I guess we’re not catching KID today,” Hikaru half-heartedly laughed off. Then, after a beat of silence, he followed up with a more thoughtful hum. “You know, if the KID decoy landed somewhere around here, then this location must be a distraction. The real KID must have landed somewhere else, maybe even as far as Haido Port.”

Shinichi sharpened his eyes on the younger officer at his interestingly astute observation. 

“Haido Port?” Imai questioned, sounding sceptical. “What makes you say there?”

Hikaru gave an aloof shrug. “Well, the wind direction is going that way isn’t it?”

At the suggestion, both officers turned their heads in Shinichi’s direction where the wind was blowing from and Shinichi quickly let the cape fall back into place, pressing hard back into the hollow. Did they see him? Or rather, did Imai see him?

The silence stretching on had Shinichi’s guts so tense you could string them on a violin. Then, there was the sound of a light slap and something plastic hit the ground, rolling a short distance as Shinichi assumed Imai hit Hikaru’s helmet in admonishment, knocking it off the younger officer. 

“Idiot! The wind is blowing westwards. Haido Park is west of Haido City Hotel, that’s how we tracked KID’s decoy this far in the first place!”

“Of course, Senior Officer, of course! I meant no disrespect sir!” Said Hikaru, as Shinichi heard the slight scuffle of Hikayru picking up his helmet. 

“But, now that I think about it, didn’t the weather report say the wind was blowing more northwesterly at six o’clock when KID’s heist was underway?” Hikaru asked as the armoured anti-riot plates of his uniform clacked together when he straightened up. “Ah yes, right here, look at tonight’s weather report app!”

Beyond the cape, Shinichi could see the shadowy silhouettes of both officers hunching over a small electronic display, presumably Hikaru’s phone. 

“That northwesterly wind would have taken KID past the park and directly to Haido Port.” 

Hikaru straightened up and rested his chin on top of his fist in thought in an eerily familiar gesture. His silhouetted pose reminded Shinichi of languid cats leaning against a wall, sauntering down the steps like it owned the place. Hikaru’s next sentence added a charismatic lilt to his voice that sealed Shinichi’s suspicions.

“If I were a great Phantom Thief looking to make a getaway, I’d want to fly somewhere with fewer lights. That would make it easier to disappear into the night. Not to mention, Nakamori-keibu can’t exactly position his police cars for a perimeter in the water at the port. If there was, say, a temporary platform anchored to a buoy in advance by one of KID’s accomplices, it’d make for a perfect getaway location.”

Imai stood in stunned silence, probably gaping like a fish under his helmet visor if Shinichi had to hazard a guess. “W-why didn’t you bring this up earlier, Hikaru-kun? We’ve got to tell the Inspector right away! Nakamori! Nakamori-keibu, come in!” The other officer shouted excitedly into his radio.

‘Hikaru’ shifted his weight in amusement as his senior officer almost dropped the radio in his enthusiasm. The device crackled to life as Nakamori responded to the transmission with an irritated growl. “What is it, Senior Officer Imai? Don’t you know I’m busy right now? KID’s changed the code to the Iron Dutchman’s safe, and without the KID Killer I’m stuck trying to figure my way out on my own! Did you find the evidence of KID’s escape for lock-up?”

As he was about to make his report, Imai looked hesitantly back at Hikaru, who was nodding encouragingly at the Senior Officer. “We did Nakamori-keibu, we found the decoy KID’s hat! Furthermore, we have suspicions that the real KID actually might have made his getaway location Haido Port due to changing wind directions; we realised the wind was blowing Northwest at the time of the heist itself!”

Nakamori swore on the other end of the line as there was the sound of something crashing, probably one of KID’s pranks he left for the inspector rigged up to the safe door if he input the wrong code. “Dammit! I should’ve realised that! Where’s that KID-Killer Brat when you need him? Senior Officer Imai, you and officer Hikaru get yourselves over here right away. After you submit the decoy’s hat in for evidence, I want you both to investigate Haido Port immediately!”

“Right away, Nakamori-keibu!” Imai replied, instinctively straightening his stance at the order and deactivating his radio. There was an abrupt shuffle of gear and the jingle of keys being tossed as Imai made his way to the entrance of the park. “You heard him, Hikaru-kun, ready the car. We’ve got a long investigation ahead of us. Tell your wife you’re working overtime tonight.”

Imai let out a surprised sound, however, when there was a returning metallic jingle as the keys were quickly tossed back. 

“Actually Imai-san, why don’t you go on ahead?” said Hikaru.

Shinichi still couldn’t see past the sheet of fabric, but judging from the location of the voice, he’d venture that Hikaru had situated himself just in front of the tree where Shinichi was hidden, further blocking him from Imai’s view. 

“Officer Hikaru?”

Hikaru waved off Imai’s concerns. “Look, I’m sure you’ll want to submit this very important evidence to Inspector Nakamori yourself. I mean, it’s Kaito KID’s hat! I’m sure you’ll be the talk of the whole Division back at the precinct.” He then thumped his hand against his own chest. “But while I’m ninety-nine per cent certain KID must have gone to Haido Port and that you’ll definitely catch him there, my gut is telling me I should stay posted here. Just in case of a trap.”

“A trap?” Imai replied, sounding sceptical.

“Yeeeah!” Hikaru confirmed enthusiastically. “KID’s just so clever. What if KID’s true motivation is waiting for us to abandon our post at Haido Park to go after the port once we realised his trick? It would be much safer if I stayed behind so we could keep an eye on both locations. He’s a crafty genius, so I wouldn’t put it past him, you know?”

Shinichi had to bite back an audible snort at the exaggerated fannish fawning. ‘Hikaru’ was really laying on the self-flattery thick. If he inflated his ego any further, he would have a lot of trouble taking off on his glider at this rate.

Imai, however, seemed wholly convinced by ‘Hikaru’s’ reasoning. Shinichi wondered where the real officer Hikaru was; perhaps still at home with his wife, blissfully unaware of his face being paraded around by an imposter. 

“Good thinking Hikaru-kun, I knew there was a reason I brought you with me. I hadn’t even considered keeping a post here, you’re sharp!” 

The heavy footsteps of Imai made haste towards the exit of the park, pausing only briefly to look back. “I’ll put in a good word with Nakamori-keibu, maybe it won’t be long until you’re a Senior Officer yourself! You’ve a good head on your shoulders, Officer. If I’m not too careful, you’ll outrank me in no time!”

Hikaru gave a modest chuckle, tapping the side of his helmet in a farewell salute. “You flatter me Imai-san, best of luck.”

As Imai’s retreating footsteps rapidly faded further away, ‘Hikaru’ called out after the officer again. “Oh, and stay away from pier three! I have a really bad feeling about pier three!”

It didn’t seem like Senior Officer Imai heard him however, as there wasn’t even a shout back of acknowledgement.

“I booby trapped it,” ‘Hikaru’ stage-whispered under his breath conspiratorially to the tree Shinichi had hidden inside. He then cackled wickedly as if he and Shinichi were sharing an inside joke, which in a way, he supposed, they were.

Sounds of polycarbonate and fabric fell to the ground as Shinichi could hear the disguised Phantom Thief kick off his garb until the sound of his movements became less stiff and cumbersome and changed closer to the fluid swishing of satin and silk characteristic of the flashy magician’s regular attire. With the grace of a sure-footed cat, KID stepped around the mud and roots of the tree until he was just in front of the hollow Shinichi had cornered himself in. Shinichi could easily picture the thief; his signature shark-like smirk plastered on his stupid face tilted slightly off-centre just beyond the thin barrier of fabric, crouching down presumably at roughly eye-level with the detective, head leaning against a thoughtful fist under his chin and arm propped up on one knee.

When Shinichi failed to greet the thief, a short silence followed, stretching on further uncomfortably where neither he nor the thief said anything at all. Normally, only KID would have had the benefit of being nearly completely unreadable, his emotions masked by his near unshakeable poker face. However, outside of a few contextual clues, Shinichi now found he was the one with an edge as his face was completely unknowable to the phantom thief through the opaque barrier of fabric. Neither party would be able to discern the other’s emotions clearly tonight.

KID was the first one to break the silence. “Are you alright, Meitantei?”

Shinichi was grateful that KID had taken the initiative in this encounter, saving Shinichi the stress of making the first move in his current state. But also he was not, because now KID has initiated direct interaction, and Shinichi didn’t really want to say anything. But it wasn’t exactly like he could just pretend he didn’t hear the thief or that KID didn’t already know Shinichi was there. He didn’t want to go home, but Shinichi wasn’t exactly after company tonight either. However, he couldn’t avoid such a direct question, short of outright ignoring the thief, then KID would definitely know something was bothering him.

Steadying himself, Shinichi cleared his throat until he trusted himself to speak. “I’m fine. Th-thank you. For not saying anything. To Imai-san, I mean.”

He could see the vague shadow of KID beyond the white fabric curtain giving a sweeping bow as best he could from his crouched position to Shinichi, hand settled over his heart in a gentlemanly display of sincerity. “The pleasure’s all mine, Meitantei, you know how much I enjoy our little post-heist heart-to-hearts beneath the romantic moonlight. I wouldn’t want any unwanted audience members spoiling what we have between us.” 

Shinichi rolled his eyes. He didn’t have to see through fabric to tell KID was sending him a cheeky flirtatious wink. He felt more than heard KID shift closer until he was all but leaning up against the tree next to the open hollow, his light movements causing the cape to flutter from where it hung snagged in the tree branches and his warm voice came from closer to Shinichi’s right ear.

“Now that we’ve a bit more privacy, would it be alright for me to move this?” 

Shinichi saw the shadow of a hand glide over the surface of the cape, lifting the sheet from where it fell across his face-

“No, don’t-!” he blurted out before he could stop himself. He threw his hands over his mouth, wishing he could snatch those words back.

KID’s hand froze, hovering only inches above Shinichi’s fabric-shielded face. The shadow of his hand loomed fuzzy and indistinct, stretching out long over the draped silk like creeping spider’s legs. He could hear something rasping. It was his own breathing, Shinichi realised. Panicked breath pulling into his lungs and puffing out across the fabric shield in short staccato bursts. His pulse, meanwhile, was roiling in his ears, anxious as to the thief’s next movements. 

KID made a startled noise in contemplation, but did not lower his hand.

Make it go away, Shinichi wanted to say, eyeing the shadow warily. He was overreacting, he knew he was. It was only KID. But his sharp eyes couldn’t help but snap to the looming threat above, picturing the hand reaching for him, pulling him out into the open. 

KID’s not a threat, Shinichi reminded himself in an internal repeated mantra, trying to slow down his breathing. He just wants his stupid cape back. But why can’t he move his stupid hand already?

The hand stayed, hesitant and frozen in indecision. KID didn’t have to listen to him, Shinichi belatedly realised with foreboding dread. There was no one else at the park now that he had send Imai away. It was KID’s cape that Shinichi was taking shelter under, he had every right to it. Shinichi couldn’t hope to fight back with his childish strength if KID decided to simply rip the cape from his grasp if he wanted to. But KID wouldn’t do that- would he?

Shinichi had to swallow down the dry bubble of fear that had crept up his throat.

Finally, the looming shadow of KID’s hand faded from the surface of the fabric, retreating from the hollow. 

“Alright, the cape stays. That’s alright too,” KID settled amicably back a respectful distance. Shinichi slowly evened out his breathing as the thief uncrowded the small, claustrophobic hollow. Shinichi pinched a stretch of skin around his opposing wrist, twisting it hard and using the ensuing pain to reel in his paranoia. 

How annoying, he scolded himself as he tried to calm down his own heartbeat to something resembling normal. Shinichi had hoped he had shed the immediate skittish streak sometime two weeks ago. It appeared he wasn’t nearly as rid of it as he thought. 

“You can keep my cape for a little while longer. I think it looks quite nice on you.”

Snorting at the empty compliment, Shinichi flipped off the thief and let him know as such by holding the gesture right up against the fabric membrane. The unmistakable impression of his little fingers could be seen distorting the fabric on the other side of the cape. He knew the thief was just distracting him. The cape wasn’t even so much as on ‘him’ as it was ‘in the tree’. All that earned him, however, was a bemused chortle.

“Charming, is that what they teach kids in school these days?” KID stretched out with an exaggerated yawn before crouching down roughly at eye-level to the detective again. 

“Do you mind if I stay here for now, Tantei-kun? Forgive me, but you seem like you could use the company.” 

“Do what you want,” Shinichi called out, lowering his other hand from his mouth and swiping both frustratedly at his sides.

Jeez, just because he looked like a child didn’t mean he had to keep reacting like a child. Not in front of the present company who knew better anyway. 

There were a few carefree steps as KID proceeded to do just that, making himself comfortable. Shinichi started as the tree groaned when the wood of the hollow leaned back at him slightly. Presumably, the thief taken up a post on the other side of the tree, setting the thief and himself back to back with only the wood of the tree itself separating them both. Shinichi tried not to feel too much better, knowing the thief’s keen eyes were no longer directly burning a hole through his feeble fabric shield. As a fickle, detail-oriented thief, KID was too perceptive for his own good and would have no doubt been able to spot Shinichi’s nervous ticks beneath the cape if they had stayed face to face. 

“I must say, you picked an unusually poor choice of hiding spot, Tantei-kun,” KID said easily. “Not even a back up exit route available to you if you were discovered — which you were.”

“It was a spur of the moment decision, it’s not exactly like I planned to be out here tonight. I’ll be sure to prepare a hiding spot with at least three backup escape routes in the near future,” Shinichi retorted, not in the mood to discuss the finer points of sneaking around in the night.

KID didn’t seem to mind, needling the prickly detective further as if he hadn’t been rebuked and they were just meeting up for a moonlit stroll. “What are you even doing out here tonight by your lonesome, hiding away from police officers? Not up to no good I hope?” KID’s overtly eager tone conveyed that he was hoping for exactly that. 

In their previous encounters, KID always seemed to take an unusual amount of pleasure every time he saw Shinichi disregarding the law when it came to their chases. It wasn’t exactly a habit Shinichi was proud of, but KID had a knack for bringing the worst competitive streak in him. That was hardly the case today, however, as really, Shinichi was skulking around for a moment of privacy to himself. A moment that was currently being intruded upon by the titular Phantom Thief.

“Because I didn’t fancy being needlessly kicked out of a public park by a member of law enforcement for being out so late as a grade schooler. What’s your excuse?” Shinichi fibbed back in a snarky tone. It was a half-truth. He didn’t want to be removed from the park, but more importantly, he hadn’t wanted to be found to avoid exactly this situation of talking to someone. And now this stupid nosy thief was ruining his plans. Hopefully, whatever business KID had at the park would be wrapped up quickly and Shinichi could be left back to his own devices. 

Shinichi folded his small arms and turned disdainfully away from the direction of KID’s voice. “You should have been long gone by now, the port’s only a few minutes away by glider. What are you, returning to the scene of the crime to gloat in Nakamori-keibu’s face?”

KID barked out a laugh at that, a gleeful sound of boyish youth that was too carefree for Shinichi’s liking. The sound danced with the wind as it rustled the edges of the cape, beginning to lift the fabric. Before he could stop himself, Shinichi’s hands had shot out to hold down the edges of the cape, keeping himself fully hidden from view. Luckily, being on the other side of the tree, KID hadn’t seen the action.

“Nothing quite that dastardly, Tantei-kun,” KID sighed, his sniggering muffled by his gloves. “While that does sound fun, I came back for much more mundane business I’m afraid.”

His light-hearted tone flipped to one of faux boredom and annoyance. “You see, I don’t exactly have an infinite supply of spare hats and capes. If I lost a hat and cape every time I had to deploy a decoy to distract the KID task force, I’d find myself steeped in a lack of funds and in dire need of a dedicated confidential seamster.”

Shinichi made a noise of affirmation, as the thief was making a certain amount of sense. Replacing all the capes and hats every heist would have been expensive after a fair few times. And short of making many copies of his costume himself, it would be highly suspicious if anyone in Tokyo kept getting new orders for white suits, top hats and capes every time there was another KID heist.

“That being said, I came back here to retrieve my double’s cape before it ended up in an evidence locker somewhere at the precinct. Too many of my props have ended up in Division Two’s evidence locker where I’ll never get them back, and I’d have wasted a perfectly good quick-release cape.”

“How very economical of you,” Shinichi gibed. “With how flashy and excessive you are on expensive props like the smoke bombs and live doves, I wouldn’t have pegged you as one for price consciousness.”

“My, my, Tantei-kun, all my doves are my friends. Don’t be so cruel as to imply they’re nothing more than business expenses!” KID cried in mock-offence.

“Oi oi, since when is stealing jewels by the moonlight a ‘business?’”

“Besides,” KID continued, pointedly ignoring Shinichi’s last retort. “Are you really in a position right now to be mocking me, Tantei-kun?”

KID tapped a rhythmic pattern on his side of the tree wood, the beats reverberating against Shinichi’s back as if the thief were tapping his fingers directly on Shinichi’s spine. “I must say, if anything, you now owe me one,” he cooed, KID’s words sing-songing to the improvised wooden percussion.

Shinichi narrowed his eyes, wondering just what favour KID was playing at.

“Seeing as I have now instead sacrificed my last hat on hand to the hands of the persistent Nakamori-keibu to conceal your presence from Imai here at the scene, I’ve done you a favour.”

“Wait, really?”

Shinichi couldn’t see KID nod, but he could picture it. The Phantom Thief, normally so careful to disguise his face and identifiable features under the shadow of his wide brim magician’s top hat and monocle, half-unmasked just on the other side of the tree hollow. If Shinichi wanted to, he could even run around the other side of the tree and catch sight of him, glean some clues as to the thief’s true face, if he wasn’t wearing a mask, that is. But somehow, Shinichi knew he wasn’t. KID was uniquely vulnerable, sacrificing part of his mask for Shinichi's benefit.

“Until my assistant finishes my new spares, anyway.”

The corners of Shinichi’s lips dipped in a frown as he knotted his hands in the damp moss that fringed the edges of the hollow. It's not like he asked the thief to donate his last hat on his behalf, the thief had volunteered his own services.

“So, I feel I’m at liberty to ask, Tantei-kun— and don’t give me any of that earlier nonsense about not wanting to get kicked out of a public park, you and I both know that’s a weak excuse, and Haido is a good hour out from Beika by foot at your size to simply just wander by,” KID warned. 

“Whyever are you hiding out here, of all places, at this time of night?” asked KID, tapping his fingers against the wood inquisitively. It wasn’t accusatory, merely questioning. “The truth this time. Did something happen? I didn’t see you at the heist, and I believe it’s much too late for pint-sized detectives to be out past their bedtime.”

Shinichi scowled, even though he knew KID couldn’t see him from behind. “Though your discretion with Imai-san was much appreciated, KID, I didn’t need your help. You got yourself involved when you didn’t need to. And don’t patronise me with talk about ‘bedtime’.”

Shinichi thumped a fist against his chest. “I came to Haido Park whenever I pleased back when I was Shinichi Kudou, and I’ll come whenever I please now that I’m Conan, regardless of my current appearance.” He elbowed the wood at his back, knocking the reverberation back against where KID’s fingers should have been. 

“And as for your point of me ‘owing you one’?” Shinichi rolled his eyes. “Please, you’re lucky I didn’t come out to reveal ‘Hikaru’ was a fake to Senior Officer Imai. You didn’t expose me, and I didn’t expose you. I should think that makes things square between us.”

That ought to shut up the stupid thief, Shinichi thought triumphantly. He had a long list of paid and outstanding favours between himself and the thief, but this instance was not one of them,

KID gave a mirthful laugh, like the very idea of Shinichi exposing KID was ludicrous. His full belly laugh shook the tree Shinichi was pressed in and he tried not to be too cross about the thief not taking his threat to expose him to Imai very seriously. 

“Ah, but exposing me would have required you to reveal yourself to the Senior Officer as well,” KID’s warm voice then softened, taking on a note of sombreness in his next sentence. “Forgive me, Meitantei, but I was under the impression that was one outcome you could not allow.”

“And what gave you that idea?” Shinichi scowled. The idea that Shinichi wouldn’t reveal KID because of, what? The strange honour code between himself and the thief? It was laughable. Shinichi had easily exposed KID’s location in their midst in the name of thwarting his heists before. Multiple times in fact, it was practically tradition. 

“It’s simple Shinichi, you told me so yourself.”

Shinichi scoffed, folding his arms again. “I said no such thing. You must be hearing things.”

“Please don’t tell, I don’t want to see Ran,” a weak, choked voice pleaded.

Shinichi froze. The way it was spoken, it was barely audible. More air than sound, but it may as well have been shouted from the rooftops with how it echoed in Shinichi’s head when the words registered in his mind. It didn’t take much deduction to figure out Kaito KID was imitating Shinichi’s own voice exactly as it had sounded when he was in the throes of panic. It sounded terrified, frantic, broken. He hated that sound, it was irrefutable evidence. It sounded like-

KID knocked solidly against the wood, the vibration grounding Shinichi back to his current situation, scattering his thoughts like glass marbles.

“Tantei- no, Shinichi. What happened?” KID asked carefully. “Something happened, right? Are … are you alright? I think I deserve at least a little bit of an explanation.”

KID hesitated, lowering his monocle in hand as he gazed skyward. “It wasn't just tonight either, but you’ve failed to show up to any of my heists in the past three months.”

Shinichi turned away from the opening of the hollow and clutched the cape tighter to himself, burying his face into the fabric and cocooning himself against the world. It was with this new veneer of privacy that Shinichi finally spoke. “No offence KID, but why do you care? Trust or no trust, favour or not, you’re just a dumb thief.”

An obnoxious, derisive snort came from the thief’s spot behind the tree. “Am I not allowed to care about the wellbeing of my favourite critic? For shame Meitantei, I thought we were closer than that.”

There was the sound of a soft thump as Kaito kicked back his feet and cushioned the back of his head with a cradle of interlaced fingers, leaning back against Shinichi’s tree hollow with a boyish laze until he got some answers. Shinichi had a funny feeling that if prompted, KID would have pulled out a psychiatrist’s couch out of nowhere and bespectacled himself in an appropriate disguise to ask after Shinichi’s woes.

“So, what’s troubling my favourite chibi detective? I can only assume it doesn’t concern your scary friends in black, seeing as if they did you would have already gone to the Professor or the scary little scientist about it. Perhaps then, it concerns our dear Ran-neechan, if you specifically can’t even go see her about it?”

Shinichi sighed in exasperation. KID really was too damn perceptive for his own good. However, it was admittedly highly out of the norm for something to make him panic like he had when he thought about seeing Ran. He’d rather no one witnessed his moment of weakness at all. Now, the thief wanted an explanation. Shinichi supposes there wasn’t really any harm in talking about the bit about Ran at least. He had a needling suspicion the thief would refuse to leave him alone for the night until he gave a satisfying answer anyway. Alternatively, he could just up and leave, dodge the thief until he lost him in the park. But- 

Shinichi swallowed. The thought of shedding the protection of the cape too soon and letting the naked world see his transparent vulnerability before he properly gathered himself to face it, it was like he could already feel his skin cracking under the exposure. No, it wouldn’t be so bad to at least say something, if only a bit before he could bring himself to leave. 

“It’s … it’s as you said. It’s because of Ran I can’t go home, actually. Not yet anyway. I don’t want to make her cry.”

KID made an interested noise, humming from his side of the tree. “And staying away from home late won’t worry her?”

“She’ll be worried,” Shinichi confirmed.”But worried is better than … that.”

“Crying?”

“Yes.” Shinichi bit his lip, not sure how much he should say. Not sure how much he could say. 

“Then we have that much in common at least, Tantei-kun. I, too, hate it when I’m the reason a pretty girl cries. So why is the lovely Ran-neechan crying, if I may be so bold as to ask?” questioned KID.

Shinichi’s hands clenched and unclenched. He knew KID couldn’t see him, he knew the phantom thief wasn’t even facing him right now. But he felt more exposed than if KID were looking directly at his face without even his Conan glasses to mask himself. But he had already started his explanation, the least he could do now was finish it. For hiding him from the other officer, sacrificing his precious last hat, KID deserved at least that much. 

“Because when she looks at me, she gets so sad,” said Shinichi, deliberately keeping things vague. “Because … she blames herself.”

KID stayed silent, letting Shinichi carry on in his own time if he chose to elaborate. Which, perhaps he should, just a bit, explain enough that the Phantom Thief might stop pestering him if he was satisfied..

“Ran knows it’s not her fault. She knows I don’t blame her, she was just trying to help do the right thing, it’s what anyone would expect to do in her situation.” 

Now that he didn’t have to press up against the tree to hide, Shinichi allowed himself to sink against the hollow in a more relaxed position. The motion caused his jacket to ride up his back as he slid down the side of the tree, hugging his knees.

“And what did Ran-neechan do?” Asked KID gently.

Shinichi couldn’t help the shudder that wracked his back. “She wanted to do what I always do. She wanted to expose the truth,” he answered honestly. “It’s not her fault if the truth doesn’t matter to anyone else.”

“The truth?”

“... It’s kind of a long story, one that doesn’t even start with Ran.”

There was another shift at the tree. Shinichi could just picture KID throwing his arms out either side of him, like he could take on anything Shinichi could say with nary a care in the world. 

“We’ve got nothing but moonlight to burn Meitantei,” KID drawled, hanging his monocle up on a branch and loosening his tie in an indulgence of relaxation, before adding “only if you want to tell me of course.”

Shinichi did, but he also didn’t. He trusted KID, as stupid as that decision was. But did that trust extend beyond just heists and mind games? Ran figured it out and it nearly broke her spirit, which is why he was avoiding her in the first place.

“Why am I even telling you any of this?” Shinichi mused to himself aloud. “I don’t even know you.”

“Exactly!” 

Shinichi could hear the ecstatic grin in Kaito KID’s voice, like Shinichi had just solved the riddle on a heist calling card. KID spoke with the grandiose of a showman, presenting a narrative to the shrunken detective and baiting him into playing along in a new game.

“Who else better than, to confide in? I am but a nameless, faceless Phantom, only existing by the light of the moon. Come sunrise, your secrets can disappear with this version of the Phantom upon first light. And if you merely ask, Meitantei, a new Phantom Thief can take his place when we next meet, his memory blank and new.”

What a childish proposition, Shinichi was the Great High School Detective of the East. He wasn’t actually a child who believes in make-believe stories about ghosts and phantoms, despite outward appearances. Shinichi scoffed as such. “I don’t believe in poetic fairy tales where the Phantom Thief vanishes at the stroke of midnight. Despite what they call you, you’re still human. And you’ll remember what I tell you when we next meet, even if you pretend you don’t.” 

“Of course, of course, because you’re a critic,” KID drew out the last word with a teasing velvety tone. He then snickered, the melodic sound soothing Shinichi’s frazzled nerves despite his best efforts to not be drawn in by the thief’s stupid charm. 

“But I should think that even critics could use some childish naivete every now and then. Let yourself dream a little, don’t you have any dreams? It's healthy to believe in a little magic, Tantei-kun. Just for tonight.”

Shinichi was almost offended with the deliberate call-back to one of KID’s first jibes at his serious disposition. He battled his internal caution as the thief’s easy air disarmed his hackled guards. It was so stupid, he couldn’t believe he was even considering it just because the internationally wanted jewel thief was the one suggesting it. But maybe, if KID could play a part, then Shinichi too, could pretend. If only a little. 

“You won’t remember?” He asked, quieter than intended. Shinichi still wasn’t used to asking for help, or even an ear to listen. 

“Only if you don’t want me to, Meitantei,” the Phantom promised. “It’s a Phantom Thief’s contract. On the light of the moon, your secrets die with me tonight.” 

Shinichi rolled his lips together. He hated how much he felt like a frightened child clutching the thief’s cape around himself like it could protect him, like a warm blanket from the nightmares. Like a child who needed fairy tales to soothe his troubled mind. But maybe, he could let himself be a child. Just for tonight.

“Alright. I’ll- I’ll tell you everything,” he acquiesced, shaking off his hesitancy. “So long as you’re willing to listen.” 

As Shinichi gathered his thoughts, he knocked his fingers against the wood at their backs, renewing the thief’s attention. “Hey stupid thief, this goes both ways, you know? I can tell you everything so long as I’m willing, but you don’t have to feel obligated to listen to all I have to offer either.”

He wanted to let KID know that he had an out as well. “If- if you feel like it’s too much, if what I have to say is distressing, you have my full support to leave in the middle of it, and not come back. I won’t judge you.”

KID gave a playful knock back through the wood, the reverberations reassuring Shinichi of his continued presence. “You’ll have to try a lot harder than that to get rid of your Phantom Thief for the night, Meitantei. ‘There is only one truth,’ isn’t that what you always say? I’m not so cowardly as to run away from your unpleasant truths. Even if the truth ‘doesn’t matter to anyone else.’ My verbal contract stands.”

Shinichi snorted. There is only one truth. That phrase was only any good if the people listening cared about the truth. If they didn’t … Well, Ran’s reaction to Them could attest to that. But KID would care about the truth. Even if he didn’t like to admit it, even Shinichi could tell KID was something of a sleuth himself. He wanted to expose the truth behind the forgeries of Ryoma’s treasures. He wanted to expose the owner of the Fairy Lip as a thief and a fraud. Even if he couldn’t do anything about it, KID would at least care about the truth, and that was the least Shinichi could ask for. While he wasn’t so sure telling the thief would do any good himself, it seemed KID was sure enough for the both of them. 

“Right, well. We’ll see how you feel as we go then, won’t we?”

Letting out a long draw of air, Shinichi blew his fringe out of his face and out against the cape, rewinding these past few months of woes and troubles in his head. “I don’t know if you remember, but there was this big court case. It would have been all over the news a few months back, concerning a high ranking police officer.”

Even as his words recounted the story, Shinichi could clearly recall being shielded from the flashing of cameras at the courthouse as though it were only yesterday, desperate to capture the faces of scandal like vultures over a rotting carcass.

“I … think I’m familiar, around about the time Superintendent General Hakuba threatened to resign from the force, yes? I do keep an eye out on news cycles for appearances of jewels of interest.” KID gave a thoughtful hum. “If I recall correctly, they said a high ranking police officer in Tokyo was accused of ‘serious misconduct’ concerning a case where the witness was a minor, and was facing immediate dismissal.”

“Yeah, that's the case.” Shinichi confirmed. He could practically hear the gears grinding as KID’s brain was already making the connections. If Shinichi knew of KID’s civilian identity, he might have known KID was recalling that week that Saguru Hakuba was absent nearly every day. And when he had turned up to class, Saguru was often irritable and ashen-faced, lining up the timeline to Shinichi’s story. Meaning that Hakuba would probably know what was bothering his favourite detective. Well, that just wouldn’t be fair if Haku-bastard knew something about Shinichi that KID didn’t. 

“Careful, don’t hurt yourself thinking too hard there, Thief. The look might stick on your pretty face.”

“But my pretty thinking face is one of your favourite faces,” KID teased. Shinichi rolled his eyes and didn’t give KID the satisfaction of a reply, but the damage was already done. 

“Well, I can tell you’ve already guessed since I brought it up, but I was in fact, the underage minor witness called for the trial.” 

“Naturally.” KID chuckled.

Shinichi adjusted the cape around himself slightly, pulling it tighter over his shoulders. “As the case concerned a highly decorated member of society and a minor, legally the details were kept under a gag order to preserve both the minor witness’s confidentiality, and the reputation of the officer.”

“A legality I’m sure you’re about to breach, for shame Meitantei.”

“Because you’re such a stickler for upholding the law,” Shinichi deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.

KID tapped his side of his head in amusement. “Touché.”

Soft bark crumbled in Shinichi’s nervously fidgeting fingers as he gnawed on his lip. “I guess the first detail you should know is the identity of the accused. The police officer under investigation was Senior Commissioner Kataguri.”

“Senior Commissioner Kataguri?” KID echoed, the name ringing some familiarity on his tongue. “That’s a pretty high ranking officer.”

It was, only two ranks below the head of police, Superintendent General Hakuba, in fact. There was some quiet tapping as KID took out Hikaru’s phone and searched up records of the police officer in question. A local paper blog announcing Kataguri’s retirement greeted him, celebrating forty years on the force and a decorated career from the Grand Theft department to his last position in the Arson Squad. An old picture featured Kataguri in his biggest case, a large-scale sting operation where his team had apprehended over thirty criminals dealing in arms smuggling. Kataguri said he was set to retire quietly by spring.

“Oh, him. Isn’t he that officer who was in charge of busting those serial bank robberies some twenty years back? My mother had a posterboard of his photo she used for target practice. She always said he was a pain in her side while she stole things under the Phantom Lady name.”

The shadows of leaves rustled in the wind, fragmenting the sheen of moonlight into a haphazard mosaic as Shinichi nodded, casting his eyes up to the boughs of the tree. He had long suspected KID came from a family of international thieves, but it wasn’t like he could do anything with the information. No one knew who the Phantom Lady was either. 

“The very same. Kataguri had climbed the ranks quite quickly back in the day in the Grand Theft Department before settling at his current position as the decorated Senior Commissioner of the Tokyo Arson Department.”

KID let out a low whistle. “You make some pretty big name enemies, Tantei-kun. You sure don’t like to do things halfway.”

“Apparently not,” Shinichi grimaced. His track record of allies and enemies spoke for itself.

“That being said, I was called to testify as the primary witness for the accusations against Kataguri. In fact, I was the one pressing charges. The thing is, the accusations weren’t just ‘misconduct’, as the press said.”

There is only one truth, and Shinichi suddenly found it very difficult to swallow. This was it, this was his last chance to back out before it was all in the open. The truth behind the root cause of Ran’s distress, and by extension, Shinichi’s misery. But KID promised he’d listen to the truth. Every ugly facet of it. Shinichi was about to see if KID really was ready to shoulder it.

“Sure, ‘misconduct,’ is one way to put it.” Shinichi gave a dry, humourless laugh. “That was the sanitary narrative pushed by Kataguri’s defence and the general police force. Sanitary, to obfuscate the true vulgarity of the accusation I was pressing against an otherwise respected member of society.“

“The police force wanted to obfuscate the case?” Shinichi could hear the frown riddling KID’s voice. “That certainly doesn’t sound like Superintendent General Hakuba. Unless you know something about that bastard’s father that I don’t.”

Shinichi shook his head. No, the Superintendent General had no blame to shoulder in this case. “I understand your faith in Hakuba’s father, KID, but I’m afraid this decision was not up to the Superintendent General, it wasn’t his idea to obfuscate the case. For what it’s worth, he took the crime in question very seriously.” 

He understood KID’s confusion. Hakuba junior was such a stick in the mud regarding rules, efficiency and propriety, it was hard to imagine his father being one for harbouring favours for corrupt officers, no matter their rank.

“Obfuscating the case wasn’t on his orders. Media coverage and Internal Affairs within the police force is handled by the Police board itself. Even if he wanted to, Superintendent General Hakuba wouldn’t have been able to expose the bastard’s misconduct unless he wanted to incur the wrath of the entire board for acting out of line. The only thing he could do was threaten to resign if the offending officer was allowed to dismiss the charge without trial.”

KID tsked in disapproval. As criminal as his stints of international theft were, at least they were relatively harmless, save for Nakamori’s pride, and benefitted no one but himself on his personal quest. But internal corruption had much more sinister implications. This was why he was perfectly content on his side of the law; direct action taken with no need to deal with messy logistics, PR and red tape.

“Okay, so why did the Police board want to hide the true nature of Kataguri’s crime?”

“To preserve their own reputations of course,” Shinichi answered, like the answer was obvious. “If a Senior Commissioner of great repute was revealed to have been a proverbial rabid wolf leading a pack of police dogs, how could the general public ever trust the police again?”

Shinichi quoted the PR speak in the same professional and neutral tone as the Police Board representative at the trial.

“The police force must be trusted above all else if they are to maintain social stability and harmony.” 

Harmony. As in, ‘don’t make a fuss.’ Suck it up and deal, there's no point in crying about it now. If everyone started crying over every little mistake, nothing would ever get done. Accept the verdict and be grateful that nothing worse happened. The police force must be trusted. If it came out that the police might be untrustworthy, society would stop respecting the law. Your personal grievances with the police are less important than maintaining social harmony.

Anger, betrayal and hurt bled through his mind’s eye like hot pits of lava. Appearances must be maintained for the benefit of the people over the grievances of the individual. Shinichi let out a slow, steadying breath until he felt like he could talk about the trial without wanting to kick a hole in the precinct wall. It was hard, being told to just let it go for the continued respect of the police. Respect that had been so thoroughly betrayed that day at the trial.

“Alright then, out with it. You’ve kept me in suspense long enough Tantei-kun. And to put it plainly, it’s killing me,” said KID, pressing the matter. “You’ve been avoiding addressing the crime directly. A crime so severe, you’d press charges against a Senior Commissioner. What was the nature of the misconduct?” 

Shinichi fiddled with the soft bark between his fingers, crushing it into mulch. While KID obviously didn’t have a lot of respect for the law, he also had a sense of genuine levity and playful innocence about him. No one ever dies at his heists, and he baulks at the sight of a dead body. Shinichi didn’t know if KID has the stomach for the dark truths of the world, even if he objectively knew they existed. Shinichi didn’t want to be the one to extinguish that goodness in him. It was bad enough when he did it to Ran.

After the ensuing heavy pause, KID’s voice took on a note of severity. He gave a soft knock on the wood about where Shinichi’s neck rested in the hollow and prompted him gently. “I think we’ve danced around the issue long enough. You can tell me.”

Shinichi wanted to skirt around it, soften the blow for the Phantom Thief, break it to him gently. But he shouldn’t disguise the ugly words. As Shinichi had learnt that day in court, the longer the crime languished in pretty palatable words and sensible obscurity, the less seriously people would take his accusations. And if he tried to speak around it, what if KID didn’t believe him? It was a hard pill to swallow, that such evil existed in the world from someone people were supposed to trust. 

Shinichi wet his dry lips as he grit his teeth around his uncooperative tongue to eject the words as objectively as possible. “The nature of Kataguri’s misconduct was sexual assault.”

He could practically feel the floor falling out from under them as he uttered those words. It was out there. He had actually said it. He hadn’t actually told anyone anything ever since the trial concluded. And now it was out there, words hanging overhead like a cloud of bitter ash.

KID had gone entirely silent, you could hear a proverbial pin drop. As the moment stretched on, Shinichi could feel his skin start to itch and prickle with unbridled anxiety for KID’s response. He knew this was a bad idea. Shinichi wanted the ground to swallow him whole, bury him far away. He didn’t know if he felt better or worse that KID wasn’t vocalising an immediate visceral reaction. Rage, sadness, shock, any one of them would be expected. But the one reaction KID could give Shinichi didn’t think he would be able to handle, is disbelief. Maybe KID wouldn’t want to talk to him anymore now that he knew just how serious the matter was, Shinichi wouldn’t blame him. It was pretty damn far from his usual games-

“Shinichi, what are you telling me?” KID’s voice croaked out, choking past the ball of emotion that had spawned in his throat and dropping all facades including the use of his string of nicknames for the detective. His voice had lost all sense of its earlier levity, the boyish charm shed for something more akin to a shell-shocked rasp.

At Shinichi’s own answering silence, KID furiously rapped his knuckles at the back of the tree so hard that it shook the branches above them, sending loose leaves fluttering overhead. The red, drying leaf matter collected on the fabric cape hanging over Shinichi like splashes of summer’s blood.

 “Oi! Answer me dammit, or I’m going to have to assume the worst,” KID’s voice sounded borderline manic as he demanded answers. 

There was a crack as KID broke one of the branches of the tree, his iron-clad grip twisting the wood into splintered fragments as he tried to reign in his emotions, hoping against hope he was somehow jumping to conclusions, had misunderstood somehow. That, of all the inappropriate horrific scenarios blurring together in his head, there was hope of a least worst scenario.

”I haven’t heard anything about this, not even from Hakuba. The details of the court case weren't publicised due to the gag order surrounding the involvement with a minor, that’s what you told me.” KID grit his teeth as he internally pleaded for another explanation, any other explanation. 

“Don’t make me assume the worst, it’s not the worst, is it?” breaking his cool, KID slammed his fist hard into the wood of the tree, cracking the bark where his fist met wood. His voice dripped with desperation, “tell me it’s not the worst, Kudo Shinichi!”

The ensuing silence was almost too much for KID. He was about to throw another punch, scream, march right up to Hakuba’s stupid house and demand to Hakuba Senior that Kataguri be forced to face retribution, consequences of his KID identity being found out be damned, when Shinichi forced out a bitter laugh. The sound was so out of place, it completely caught KID off guard. Each humourless, acidic huff of laughter cut into KID’s heart like a rusty hacksaw, weighing heavily on his shoulders.

Shinichi had to stifle himself. He knew it was inappropriate. He bit down on his fingers covering his mouth until they hurt to force himself to stop. He kept up the pressure until his jaw ached, the coppery taste of blood ebbed over his tongue and his finger bones creaked. 

“No, forgive me, KID. I shouldn’t laugh,” 

He didn’t know what was wrong with him, laughing at a time like this. It was just so funny ITISN’T. On the other side of the trial, everything seemed so surreal. Like a crazy case that happened to someone else. That none of it had anything to do with Shinichi Kudo. Like he was just recounting a tragic story to the Phantom Thief. A fairy tale, if you will. Albeit a more traditional Grimm one. A fairy tale with no happy ending. The end of his laugh was abruptly cut off with an exhausted, shuddered breath when Shinichi finally managed to curb his chaotic emotions.

“It’s … not funny,” Shinichi finally admitted, though a loose, biting chuckle still escaped the corner of his mouth. “It’s just that, technically, I suppose you could say it wasn’t the worst. It still could have been worse, that’s what the courts say, anyway.”

A wash of memory flitted over Shinichi’s mind, light as a butterfly but feeling like it weighed down on him like a thousand-pound steel blanket.

“The crime, if it could even be called as such, is such a minor infraction, there wasn't even any physical damage,” the police appointed defender, Uto-something or rather, paced in front of the jury stand, rapping the pages of the court evidence record, or rather, the lack of pages, in front of him. “And as the court has discovered, no real laws were even broken. All this investigative effort, and honestly?  If the witness is even to be believed, the offence could have been worse. Your honour, the defence proposes this is all just a bad misunderstanding between the defendant and the witness. Bad kink negotiation, if you will. The only evidence we have of a ‘crime’ taking place, is the unreliable recollection of an attention-starved child.”

The lawyer suddenly turned his attention directly to the witness stand. Unable to help himself, Shinichi flinched, startled by the sudden movement. 

Don’t react, don’t jump, it makes you look nervous. The Board will think nervous people have something to hide. 

“Conan Edogawa has enjoyed his time in the Tokyo MPD investigation team spotlight for far too long, and when he grew bored of it, he decided to make a bigger spotlight for himself by stirring up trouble when he met my client.”

There was a slam as a wooden bench was tipped over. Conan looked up to the visiting gallery to see Ran had stood up, throwing the entire bench over, her fist clenched and seething at the defence lawyer cowering at the front.

“‘Bad kink negotiation?’” Ran whispered, tears streaming down her face and her rage barely contained. “He’s a child.”

Shinichi wiped his stinging eyes with the back of his hands, the heating warmth of his face beginning to fog his glasses. 

‘The offence could have been worse.’ 

There’s no point in crying about it. 

No one cares. 

Why do you care so much, he didn't even hurt you that bad. 

Ran cared.

Ran caring didn’t matter. Now all she can do is cry. Is that what you’re going to do? Cry? Cry like a little kid? What good is that going to do? It already happened. 

You’re alive, aren’t you?

It wasn't even that bad.

It could have been worse.

Shinichi was so preoccupied with arguing with himself, taking the verdict to heart, that he almost missed KID’s next outburst, thinking for a moment he had voiced his inner thoughts aloud..

“‘Could have been worse’?” KID asked shrilly. Shinichi heard faltering footsteps as KID probably tripped over himself jumping up in his outrage. “Shinichi, there is virtually no ‘good’ accusation for sexual misconduct concerning a minor of your apparent age no matter how much ‘worse’ it could have been!”

Ha, KID and Ran could probably start a club together, a petition for change. Shinichi gave a weak, indulgent smile as he murmured into his sleeves. “That’s almost exactly what Ran said when she found out.”

The ensuing rant about Shinichi’s concerning emphasis on the term ‘technically’ died on KID’s lips as the implications of what was just said registered in his head. 

“I take it this is where Ran comes into the picture?”

Despite knowing KID couldn’t see him from behind the cape, Shinichi nodded solemnly. “This is where Ran comes in, yeah.” 

If there was one thing that Shinichi would have thought was worse than facing the evils of the world itself, it would’ve been subjecting Ran to the knowledge of the same evils. It was bad enough when she was exposed to murders in his company since they were both barely teenagers. Back then, he’d lacked the social tact to understand why she was so upset when murder seemed perfectly normal to his admittedly warped sense of reality due to his proximity to his father’s freelance investigations. The only consolation Shinichi had at that age, was that at least there were still uglier crimes he hadn’t been responsible for exposing her to. Not until recently, that is. His hands drifted down to his knees, pulling them up and hugging his legs to his chest as he reluctantly let the words freely spill from his lips.

“I didn’t want to tell,” he whispered, barely audible. “I … I was going to leave it. It was a crime, but I knew there was no point telling.” Shinichi bulldozed on, refusing to acknowledge the wavering quality of his voice for fear if he slowed down to steady himself, he’d clam up and never be able to bring himself to speak of it again. 

“But Ran found out.” A hurt sound escaped his throat, stumbling over his speech as he recounted more. “I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t act normal, and she figured it out.”

He could hear his teeth were beginning to chatter and it wasn’t from the cold. The fuzzy static from before threatened to wash over him as Shinichi focused on keeping his voice from dying on him.

Ran had cornered him after a rough case where Shinichi knew he was acting suspiciously skittish around the unfamiliar police detectives. Sensitive to loud noises and unexpected touches during his deductions while the officers thought he was just being uncharacteristically shy, and she finally pieced it together. The broken cry in her voice as she confirmed her suspicions with Conan’s horrified silence at her assertions. She wasn’t stupid. She had seen how some of the girls at school jumped after bad encounters on train rides home. He remembered her heart-broken eyes even as Conan tried to comfort her, a position a child of his apparent age should never have found himself in and he was the one offering her comfort and telling her it was okay, and none of it was. 

She knows.

He’d failed. He tried to act normal, but he couldn’t fool her. She saw right through him. Why couldn’t he just get over it already? 

If you’d just acted normal, if you’d just been better, she’d have never figured it out!

If you were better, it never would have happened in the first place. 

Now, she’s crying. How is he going to get her to stop crying?

“...Tantei-kun? Tantei-kun! Shinichi!” 

“Huh?”

Shinichi blinked his eyes, not having noticed he’d zoned out. Again. That had been happening a concerning amount ever since the incident. Traumatic response, that’s what the books had called it. It was supposed to be getting better by now, Shinichi had been practicing to get better. He hated remembering things about the incident, but he hated losing gaps of time when he froze up more. It had made everything so much worse for the trial when he couldn’t remember things reliably anymore, or appeared incapable of paying attention.

KID breathed a loud sigh of relief when he heard Shinichi hadn’t somehow bolted on him after dropping such a bombshell.

“Good, you’re still here. I was just saying that, you have no shame in failing to keep up a facade. As strong as you are, even diamonds have their cleavage points. It’s not healthy trying to keep everything hidden inside.”

Shinichi scowled, rubbing up and down the sides of his knees. “Isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black? Aren’t you the master of Poker Faces?” 

He might not know all the details, but Shinichi knew KID was no stranger to keeping everything locked up inside either. The disappointment every time the prized jewel failed to be what KID was looking for, hinted at an unspoken personal loss. Not that KID would ever admit it to Shinichi, hIs face was always part of the performance.

KID tut-tutted condescendingly, like Shinichi was just caught trying to cheat in their games of cat and mouse. “Exactly! So trust me when I know what I’m saying. As much as you would’ve tried to keep hiding, Ran-neechan is a sharp one. I’m sure she’d have figured it out no matter how ‘normal.’ you seemed.” 

KID’s knowing voice layered like a soothing salve over the erratic static under Shinichi’s skin, keeping it at bay in the shadowy recesses of Shinichi’s mind until he no longer felt like clawing his own guts out. 

”Don’t beat yourself up over it,” KID finished, brushing a hand over the surface of the cape in lieu of petting Conan’s hair reassuringly.

Shinichi wet his lips, the bite of blood fading on each pass of his tongue. He extended a hand out and allowed his palm to brush across the shadow of KID’s palm, acknowledging his reassurance before letting his hand fall back to his side. The contact was scant, and separated by the thin layer of cloth, but Shinichi could still feel the warmth of KID’s hand through it all. He wondered if the Thief was still wearing gloves.

“I guess you and her have that much in common, you can both spot bullshit a mile away.”

KID managed a quick, humourless laugh. “Only yours, Tantei-kun.”

Shinichi managed a small smile in return, but it quickly faded away as he remembered he had to recount more sorry details to paint the full picture if he really wanted the thief to know everything. 

“Well, when she figured it out she … she told me to tell,” said Shinichi. 

Ran had set her hands on Conan’s shoulders. She jerked back when she saw Conan flinch, not realising what she had just done. She apologised to him quickly, eyes red and dried out but still managing to leak moisture as she eyed him seriously from a respectful distance. “You need to tell someone, Conan-kun. No- look at me. Listen, as much as it hurts, we have to get him tried for his crimes. It’s not right!

It made sense, of course it made sense. It’s what anyone would say in that situation with the typical civilian’s expectation of the law. In an ideal world, it might have even worked out the way she described. 

She was still crying, how could Conan get her to stop crying? She was crying and it was his fault. 

Was it his fault? It felt like his fault.

“Ran-neechan- Look, let’s just forget all about that, okay?” Conan suggested, putting on a brave face. He tried to twist his lips into a hopeful smile, but he was pretty sure it didn’t have the desired effect when Ran looked away to cover her crying. 

“I’m working on getting better, I might be a bit jumpy now, but I’ll be fine!” 

“Nothing is fine about this, Conan-kun!” Ran cried out, falling to the floor and rubbing her eyes behind her fingers.

“She’s the one who suggested taking it to court,” explained Shinichi to KID. “I told her it wouldn’t work, that it was impossible and that realistically, nothing would come of it if I told … But she was just so sad.”

He still didn’t want to tell, didn’t see the point in it. But the only thing he could think of to make her stop crying at that point, was if he promised her he’d tell. Give Ran the hope that even though she couldn’t fix it, she could at least do everything in her power to get Kataguri locked up. She could at least do that for him.

“She kept saying it was the right thing to do, that she’d even help.” Shinichi’s ensuing giggle was harsh, possibly even delirious. “Her mother’s a lawyer, you know?” 

“Don’t worry, Conan-kun! Mom’s a lawyer, she can help you! She hasn’t lost a case yet!”

Shinichi knew he should stop laughing, it was creepy, it was strange, it was highly inappropriate, people would think he sounded hysterical. People don’t believe hysterical people but he couldn’t help it. People reacted to extreme stress and situations in different ways, and it seemed one of his unexpected responses was pretending everything was okay by laughing. But what alternative was there? Faux-laughter was the only mask he could hide behind anymore. Otherwise, it would’ve been too hard to keep going with the dreadful story if he didn’t at least pretend he was okay. Pretend he was capable of feeling something that wasn’t empty. 

KID waited him out, letting Shinichi’s laughter die down on its own until he was ready to speak again. Once he felt it was safe to do so, KID flicked his hands out, making a small sweet appear between his fingers. Crouching down, he then pushed the confection under the folds of his cape. Seeing the emergence of the sweet, Shinichi took the wrapped confection in hand and shed the plastic wrapping, extracting a square of dark chocolate. He didn’t like being treated like a kid, but he could tell KID intended for the action as a form of comfort in absence of being able to touch or see the detective face to face to give him space, so Shinichi would let it slide, just this once. When the chocolate touched his tongue, he mentally catalogued the release of all the endorphins and chemicals in his brain the sweet would induce; serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin. It wasn’t an antidepressant by any means, but he appreciated the effort. Plus, it’d be rather difficult to creepily laugh around a candy in his mouth while he told his story.

“If it were left to anyone else, I never would’ve gone through with it,” Shinichi crumpled the plastic wrapping into a crude ball and pocketed it, shifting the chocolate around his mouth with his tongue and breaking it with his teeth like he could break apart his the hardened walls around his memory as he spoke. 

“So, even though it was a long shot, Eri-san told us she could make sure I would at least get my case looked at. So, I reported it.” 

He remembered the acute, foreboding feeling of suspicion that accompanied him when he went to the police station. Suspicion from officers who had the utmost respect for their senior officer, who had no reason to listen to Conan Edogawa. In the hierarchy of seniority, Kataguri was afforded every benefit of doubt. Shinichi snorted at his naivete. It was an ugly, disgusted sound.

“That was probably the most useless thing I've ever done in my life, and I’ve had a second chance at said life, so that’s probably saying something.”

He recalled the fruitless days of questions, reenactments, and half-assed combing of the Senior Commissioner’s home for evidence. Kataguri’s outraged wife had screamed and wailed at Conan that he was ‘nothing but a lying street urchin whose parents ‘didn’t give him enough attention at home, looking to ruin her marriage and a good police officer’s career’ as they waited outside. It wasn’t pretty, a fully grown woman screaming at an apparent seven-year-old kid. She towered over him, and for a moment, he had thought she might’ve even hit him. But she had enough sense about her to remember that there was an audience of police officers conducting a raid at her home and had stayed her hand.

“The police wasted three days of ‘investigation,’ if you can even call it that,” Shinichi gave a derisive sneer. “You see, there’s a flaw with official police investigations. They’re only useful as long as the police officers conducting it are actually taking the case seriously.” 

As he roughly swallowed his square of chocolate, Shinichi kicked his child-sized shoes into the mud, frustrated. “And since I’m seven and the accused was a famous and well-liked police Senior Commissioner, well, there was hardly a question of credibility. As much as Megure-keibu, Sato-keiji and Takagi-keiji like me, they couldn’t be part of the investigation because they’d be too biased.” He twisted his shoes in the muck, gouging hard lines into the ground that tore up the grass. He felt like the snapping blades of greenery were reflective of the seams in his mind unraveling with each ruined stitch. Ran probably wouldn’t approve of him staining his shoes. He felt like the state of his shoes was the least of his worries.

“The team that did the ‘investigation’ barely did any questioning at all. They only interrogated me, and the Senior Commissioner, no one else. And I’m using the term ‘interrogation’ very lightly here. Kataguri was so bored, they may as well have provided him with the crayons and colouring book while they were at it.”

They trusted the Senior Commissioner, why wouldn’t they? He was their senior, and a decorated officer. The police officers in charge had preconceptions that Conan was nothing but a nosy, clever kid. So, they opened the investigation out of obligation to the strings Eri pulled, gave Conan the crayons and told him he could “draw what happened,” as if his shoddy artistic skills would have made them believe him any better than what he was outright telling them, which wasn’t a lot. To implicate such a high ranking police officer was difficult, and goes against their very culture of seniority. Putting trust in Conan’s word over their senior officer was paramount to blatant disrespect. If anyone took the investigation seriously, it would be seen as indirect insubordination.

“What?” Asked KID, grabbing one of the tree branches to steady himself as it felt like his stomach was sinking into a bottomless pit with every sordid fact revealed to him. “Why wasn’t a proper investigation conducted? You’re good at that sort of thing.”

Shinichi shrugged in faux-nonchalance, as if improper investigation was par for the course. “It was a ‘black box’ crime, as they call it,” he sardonically explained. “Kataguri had experience seeing how criminals have gotten caught doing similar crimes. He knew what to avoid.” 

Senior Commissioner Kataguri was good, he knew how to cover his tracks. Shinichi ticked off his fingers, listing all the precautions Kataguri had taken to make prosecuting him as difficult as possible for Eri.

“No CCTV, no physical injuries, no traceable body fluids, wipe everything down, no hard evidence. Just his word against mine, with whatever circumstantial evidence I could point to at the scene of the crime. Which wasn’t a lot, since he cleaned up after himself so thoroughly.”

He hated the sanitised, clinical phrasing of it all. ‘Body fluids’ in the place of ‘cum’. ‘Physical injuries’ in the place of ‘bruises’. All under the clinical umbrella term ‘hard evidence’. Wasn’t that exactly what he was trying to avoid? Decorating everything in pretty, non-descript words for pleasant company in order to soften the ugly truth. The truth that didn’t deserve to be dressed up for anything less than the terrible crime that it was. But he couldn’t bring himself to voice the specifics without feeling like throwing up. ‘Cleaning up after himself.’ More like ‘wiped away his filthy cumstains before it could drip into Kataguri’s wife’s freshly laundered underwear set he had laid out in front of Conan.’ His stomach heaved as the sour taste of bile flooded his mouth at the ensuing prompted memory. His remembered trembling legs gave out from under him in utter exhaustion as he desperately bit into the side of his cheek trying to stifle any sound and deny Kataguri the satisfaction when he finally pulled away. 

Shinichi spat out the sour taste of watery bile before it could activate his gag reflex and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, rambling on before he could dwell too long on any one sordid detail like that again. The trial, focus on something safer to talk about, like the trial.

“So the only ‘evidence’ we could submit to court was my recollection and confirmation of events. The collection procedure of which, didn’t go so well,” Shinichi admitted. He cradled his head in his hands, recalling that day of official ‘investigation’. 

“I froze up. Badly. I had to go down to the police station and reenact everything for the official testimony.” 

Unfortunately, for victims of sex crimes in Japan, it was a common affair. Part of the admission of evidence was a reenactment to a room full of strangers. Police officers, yes, but strangers all the same. Strangers who had no sexual assault sensitivity training. Strangers who had their own biases and judgemental preconceptions. Strangers who asked insensitive questions that made Shinichi feel like he was the one under investigation instead of Kataguri.

Shinichi felt his face grow warm as the memory of a mix of growing helplessness and frustration filled him up. “Do you know how hard it is, to go through your assault play by play with a room full of strangers, who you can tell by the way they speak to you, the way they treat you, don’t believe you? It’s humiliating. It’s degrading.” He put on a multitude of haughty, authoritative voices, adapting to each individual involved in the interrogation room who asked questions. 

“‘Is this what really happened? Are you sure? Where did he touch you? What position? How hard? Show me. Did it even hurt? Where? What happened next? Like this? Did you like it? Are you sure? That’s not what you said earlier.’”

The voices from the interrogation sputtered from his lips like drops of acrid poison. Accusatory, skeptical, dismissive. He could remember his tongue tying in knots as he tried to address each question as it was asked without inconsistency, as every mistake would cost him dearly in terms of credibility. KID forwent his reservations and let out a horrified gasp at the reveal of relentless, insensitive questioning. 

To be fair, so did Ran at the time. Shinichi remembered her distraught face through the glass of the interrogation door when she had to witness Conan freezing up, stuttering, trying and failing miserably to maintain a clear and coherent narrative the police would believe as he was interrupted time and time again with another question calling his recollection into doubt. She watched in horror as Conan directed the officer playing the part of Senior Commissioner Kataguri. Conan was recreating the crime play by play like some kind of twisted version of Sleeping Kogoro’s famous deductions. Only in place of demonstrating a murder mechanism, it was Conan demonstrating how Kataguri had cornered him, placing the stand-in officer’s hands on the mannequin the investigative team had oh so generously provided in traumatising detail as Conan froze up, unable to continue describing events consistently as his memory lapsed on certain details, leading the officers to get frustrated with him appearing to ‘waste their time.’ The way he had wilted on the spot, feeling like he was talking to brick walls as he lost more and more credibility both because of his appearance, and because of the respect the officers had for the Senior Commissioner.

The aftertaste of chocolate in his mouth started to taste like ash as Shinichi licked his dry lips, spitting out the remainder of the chocolate as his stomach began to churn. “Yeah, don’t worry. I was fine afterwards. I must’ve done over a hundred murder reenactment ‘shows’ by now, and demonstrations are my forte. Reenacting a sexual assault should have been a walk in the park. Like you said, I’m ‘good at investigating.’”

KID didn’t reply, but made a strangled sound that sounded like he was going to be sick at the disparaging attempt at a joke. Maybe that was too far in poor taste. KID was always in a heist for the fun of things, and Shinichi had managed to steer pretty fucking far from ‘fun.’ He wouldn't blame KID if he had heard enough for tonight.

Shinichi cleared his throat, abandoning his half-attempt at a joke and picking a few errant strands of grass from the dewy ground instead. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. Are you alright KID? Should I take a break?” 

Do you want to leave? 

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?” KID immediately asked, his response carrying a slight edge of incredulousness, like he couldn’t believe Shinichi was even thinking about other people right now. There was a crack of snapped wood as Shinichi realised he wasn’t the only one abusing the tree with a death grip. Though, KID’s hands were much more effective at reducing the structure to a pulp.

Taking a moment to stop worrying about KID, Shinichi looked inward, assessing. Was he alright? Probably not. Was he about ready to crack? Also no. Did that qualify in KID’s eyes as ‘alright’? Shinichi’s gaze wandered to the side, consolidating his answer. 

“I … I don’t know. I’m working on getting better. But if listening to me is getting to be too much, you can just leave,” Shinichi suggested, shrugging even though he knew the thief couldn’t see him. It was more for himself than anything. “You probably didn’t exactly sign up for this kind of baggage when you said ‘I should tell you.’”

He cracked a weak smile, hoping with it his tone carried the air of levity he was going for to dispel some of the tension, extending the life preserver for KID to escape Conan’s ocean of turmoil while the waves were only relatively mild choppy turbulence, yet to become full-fledged destructive tsunami waves. 

“Come on, let’s just forget all about it come sunrise, and we can pretend this meeting never happened next time we meet, isn’t that right, Phantom Thief?”

Let’s just call the whole thing off. Go back to playing our games like Shinichi never said anything. Solve riddles, play chase, leave this dreary conversation behind in the back of Conan’s head where Shinichi could pretend it happened to someone else, someone unaffiliated with the Phantom Thief.

Even as he suggested it, Shinichi felt like a stream of sand was slowly collecting in bags settling heavy back onto his shoulders. While it was nice to unload some of his misery onto someone else on his own terms rather than in the process of an interrogation or trial questioning, it was also selfish of him. KID didn’t deserve to be weighed down by Shinichi’s baggage. KID was carefree and playful, a prankster child at heart where Shinichi was only a child in appearance. Like usual, KID was always an oasis of fun, a break from all the murder and secret organisations out to kill him. Where the stakes were relatively low, the adrenaline was high and nobody had to die. A world away from Shinichi’s headspace right now, even if technically nobody had been killed this time. What right did Shinichi have to pollute such a carefree world with his worries?

KID made an offended noise. “Shinichi, no matter how many times you try to offer me an opportunity to leave, I’m not going to leave my favourite detective to his inner demons alone. And if you try clamming yourself up ‘for me’, I’ll break into your mansion and sit on you until you talk. So don’t feel the need to silence yourself for my sake. If talking brings you some peace, I’ll always listen to your burdens.”

What an outlandish claim. Shinichi was about to sneer at the optimistic naivete when he caught sight of KID’s hand hovering over the cape once more. Where before, caught in the throes of panic at discovery, Shinichi had recoiled from the looming shadow, this time his heart was much calmer. Cautiously, he pulled up a corner of the hanging cape. KID’s hand snuck under the fabric to take Shinichi’s shrunken hand in his own. HIs hand was bare, the glove peeled back in lieu of real, human connection. The Phantom Thief … was serious. There was such confident conviction in his grip that for a moment, Shinichi felt marginally lighter as the imaginary load of sandbangs felt supported by two backs instead of one. Though he wouldn’t let the thief know that just yet to keep him from getting a bigger head. Maybe telling someone else really was proving more helpful than he thought. Shinichi let his fingers curl around the thief’s hand in turn, letting him know it was okay. Other than recounting the story for the police in the official reenactment and testifying in court, Shinichi realised he hadn’t really told anyone else what traspired on his own terms. Ran had figured it out for herself, Kogoro and Eri had been there at the trial and investigation, so Conan hadn’t really gotten to tell anyone else at his own discretion. He hadn’t realised he had needed this, until now, to tell someone using his own words, on his own terms, in his own time. 

“I-idiot Thief. If you break into my home, that’s just asking to get caught,” he scolded, fighting the rising heat in his face. KID didn’t need any more encouragement in breaking the law. “But even still, thanks. That’s … very kind of you.” Despite insisting he was a selfish thief, Kaitou KID had a generous heart, even in an emotional sense.

KID gave a light, airy chuckle at that, tightening his grip on Shinichi’s hand. “Getting caught would be the most exciting part, wouldn’t you agree?”

The heat from before returned with a vengeance and Shinichi cleared his throat, swallowing the welling ball of affection that had wormed its way up unbidden into his chest. “Shut up!”

Shinichi retracted his hand from KID’s grasp in retribution, but it did nothing to deter KID from continuing to laugh at his expense. 

Eventually, the laughter did die down to a more acceptable degree as KID returned to a more sombre mood. “So, Tantei-kun, was that all you were going to tell me, or is there more burden I can lift from your small shoulders as your confidant for the night?”

Shinichi bit his lip in trepidation. “I mean, if you really want to hear … I suppose I could tell you some more.”

There was a creaking of wood as the Thief leaned back against the tree, the solid pressure pressing against Shinichi’s back once more from their previous position. “I’m all ears. I believe you were telling me what happened after the investigation?”

Shinichi leaned into the pressure against his back, letting the press of solid wood remind him of KID’s presence. “Okay, after the investigation.” He let out a long stream of air, settling into his memories once more. “So, once all the ‘evidence’ was collected, obviously came the trial. I don’t know how much you know about the law, KID, since you’re more of an expert at dodging it, let alone if you’ve ever been in a courtroom. But I knew even before we started, that the trial was doomed to fail.” 

“What? How so?” KID asked, an undercurrent of disbelief on Shinichi’s behalf colouring his voice. “I can’t imagine there’d be much leeway given to crimes of this nature, given the special circumstances involving a minor.”

Shinichi gave a sigh as KID once more echoed Ran’s sentiments that day in court. He had been debriefed by Eri, and already knew to some extent of his own knowledge before going into court, that your version of justice might not always line up with the judge or jury’s version of justice. Sex crimes, especially ones committed by people in positions of power, were notorious for always being one of those finicky instances.

“Yeah, you’d think, wouldn’t you? But the reality is, that’s hardly the case, far from it.” He rubbed at his temples, easing the headache that had begun to build up there as he recollected events.

“Ran wanted to get him on everything she could, she wanted to throw the entire book at him.” Shinichi gave a grim smile, admiring the fond memory of Ran’s boiling hot righteous fury. She was a force of nature, and nearly got held in contempt of court several times despite Eri’s exasperated attempts to calm her outbursts for the jury to have a damn conscience. But even forces of nature had their limits in getting a criminal convicted in court.

“Unfortunately, most of the charges weren’t likely to stick. Eri and I managed to talk Ran down to the three most likely charges we could get a real case going for; child abuse, rape, and forced indecency.”

KID sounded appalled at the dismally short list, given the nature of the crime. “That’s it? Three charges?”

“That’s all we could risk,” Shinichi corrected. “The court system prides itself on a ninety-nine percent conviction rate. There are many contributing factors to this statistic, but part of it is that prosecutors only go after cases that are almost entirely open and shut cases. It doesn’t look good to promise a family justice in court, only for the bastard to walk free.”

Shinichi heard KID vocalise his dissent, but at least he understood this much. Japan’s ninety-nine percent conviction rate was infamous, even though not a lot of people really understood it. Crimes that aren’t open and shut are often settled instead to keep the court records perfect. It wasn’t very fair, and as a result it meant a lot of crimes never make it to court, but it was a known ‘feature’ of Japan’s near ‘flawless’ court system. 

“Sex crimes are notoriously difficult to prove, often because of the beforehand mentioned ‘black box’ factor, devolving into he-said she-said situations,” said Shinichi. “As such, an acquittal is a black stain on any prosecutor’s record, and can be a death sentence to their entire career. If anyone was going to go after someone like Senior Commissioner Kataguri on my behalf, they’d only do so with a rock solid case. If we tried for any more, we could have risked Eri losing her badge and getting her blacklisted from every law firm in Japan.”

“Didn’t you say earlier that Ran’s mother is a lawyer, not a prosecutor?”

Shinichi smiled at KID’s excellent attention to detail, even from his one off comment. He really would have made a great detective if he ever decided to switch sides. 

“Let’s just say she had her rival, Reiko-san, pull a few strings.”

“Ah, so the duplicitous route.”

“I prefer calling it the alternative route,” Shinichi let out a chuckle, even if it was short lived as he continued on with his story. “But unfortunately, even with the reduced charges, it wasn’t enough. The child abuse charge was disgustingly easy to get dismissed.”

“What?!” KID squawked indignantly. Shinichi heard the thief jumping up from the tree, whirling around to face him through the cape covering his hiding spot in disbelief.

“I must be hearing things. I thought I heard you say that the charge of ‘child abuse’ was ‘easy’ to dismiss. But I must be crazy because I feel as though ‘child abuse’ is the broadest crime Kataguri should be facing charges for when he’s sexually assaulted a minor!”

Hearing it spelled out loud as ridiculously as it seemed at first impression did nothing to make Shinichi feel better. He knew how outlandish it sounded, he was there in court when the charge got dismissed. But like all things in the court system, the law had its loopholes. Shinichi shook his head at KID, unseen under the cape. 

“Under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, child abuse is defined as assault, indecency, neglect, or excessively violent language by a custodian. Custodian being defined as a person who exerts parental authority or custody of a minor. Senior Commissioner Kataguri fulfils neither requirement of parental authority, nor custody, so that charge was thrown out the second it was uttered.”

KID was speechless. How could something so seemingly obviously defined as ‘child abuse’ not hold up in court just because of a select choice in wording in the written law? Shinichi didn’t blame him. Acquittal because of a ‘technicality’ sounded absurd. Unfortunately, this was pretty par for the course when it came to upholding and interpreting the law. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of Shinichi’s eventual hatred of the word; ‘technicality’. 

“For the next charge; rape-” 

KID sharply inhaled at the word, already feeling a sickening sense of dread as to the outcome given Shinichi’s blase tone.

“-this charge was the big one. Ran had been determined to get this one to stick, no matter what.”

Despite the odds, Ran and Eri had loaded up on books and records for precedent. They had slaved away on research to give Conan the best odds of getting this particular charge to stick. But …

Shinichi cleared his throat, he had dedicated the law to memory in preparation for the case. The legalese practically tattooed into his brain during the sleepless nights leading up to the trial for Ran’s sake.

“According to Penal Code Chapter Twenty Two, Article One Seventy Seven, rape is defined as forced penetrative penis to vaginal sexual intercourse of a woman by a man.”

A confused, almost disbelieving sound came from KID’s direction past the cape somewhere in front of Shinichi, but he continued on, not quite finished recounting the exact words and phrasing that Eri had to work with in court. The callous and indifferent edge biting into the words he recounted was reflective of the indifference of the court that day. He held up a hand for himself, counting off his fingers for every reason the court had given him to dismiss the charge.

“The first thing you might notice is that this article uses an incredibly narrow definition of ‘rape.’ ‘Sexual intercourse of a woman.’ It deliberately excludes male victims in heterosexual intercourse because of the misconception that men cannot be raped. This is because men apparently ‘inherently desire sex,’ and therefore cannot be forced into it against their will, rendering the forcible aspect of this definition moot.”

He held up a second finger. “Secondly, any rape that does not involve vaginal penetration is not covered by this definition. Anal, oral, or penetrative sex using other means like a foreign object, are excluded from this article.”

KID made an uncomfortable sound at Shinichi’s detached, mechanical, technical language, like Shinichi was describing an insurance policy, or a car manual. Something that wasn’t the systematic dismantling of his worldview of sexual violence. Shinichi held up another finger.

“Thirdly, even if we could disregard the legal requirement of vaginal penetration for the ‘definition’ of rape, as the victim of this case, I'm not exactly a woman, and Kataguri is a man. Article One Seventy Seven does not define forced intercourse between two parties of the same gender as rape.”

There was a gagging sound. Shinichi was pretty sure that it was KID. But he couldn’t stop now, not even if he wanted to. The words came to him before he could stop them leaving his mouth in a deluge of black polluted sludge. The unbidden, bitter rage and forced helplessness buried in his heart compelled him to list every goddamn excuse the court had used against him. All because of those stupid ‘technicalities.’

He ruthlessly barrelled on, holding up a fourth damning finger. This was not nearly the end of his woes that day in court. He felt bad exposing KID to all the sordid details of his case being meticulously disassembled piece by piece by Kataguri’s well-paid lawyer, but KID had to know. He had to understand the true meaning Eri had meant and Shinichi understood when ‘your version of justice might not always line up with the judge or jury’s version of justice.’ The meaning that Ran hadn’t fully grasped until the gavel fell and the final verdict given. Against every instinct that might scream at you otherwise, that the law was written a certain way, and Shinichi had to work within them. 

“Not only that, but in the official record of my reenactment submitted as court evidence, I ‘let him do it.’ And that instantly complicates a lot of things.”

“What the fuck does that mean, you ‘let him do it?’” KID shouted, incredulous. “You’re physically seven! Even if that wasn’t a factor, just based on what you’ve told me so far, it sure doesn't sound like you ‘let’ him do anything!” 

“No,” said Shinichi, shaking his head, “Technically I let him, because I had told him he could do it.”

KID levelled his voice evenly, like he was trying so hard to get Shinichi to understand. “Shinichi, if he was threatening you into it, that’s not consens-”

“He wasn’t threatening me,” Shinichi interrupted . “He was threatening his daughter.”

Whatever KID was going to say died quickly in his mouth. “Kataguri has a daughter?”

Shinichi nodded, scuffing his shoes further into the mud. “His daughter. She came to me at school asking for help.’ 

It was in Shinichi’s nature to help. And it was this trait that Kataguri had taken advantage of, damning Conan’s case before Ran had ever even made him report the crime.

He opened his palms, staring at his powerless hands. His small, weakened body, unable to escape when the door had closed shut behind him. 

“I … I didn’t know she was in on it. She’s eleven, so she won’t face criminal accountability. Not that I’d want her to, she was just trying to win her father’s affection by getting him what he wanted.” 

Shinichi bit his lip. He probably should’ve hated Kataguri’s daughter for luring him into that damn house. But he couldn’t bring himself to, she was just a lonely little girl. She loved her father, and she wanted him to love her, even if he was a bad person. Exacerbated by her mother’s unwavering loyalty to the man, the desire to be loved by her father would have warped the Kataguri daughter’s sense of morality.

“I don’t think Kataguri loved her very much. She spoke of him like he hung the stars in the sky, but if you looked in his home, it tells a very different story about what he thinks of her. They didn’t even have any pictures of her in the house. It looked like he was embarrassed to have a daughter. She was desperate to impress him, get him anything he wanted. And he wanted revenge. So, she went to get me.”

KID’s eyes sharpened in the dark, levelling at the spot roughly where Shinichi’s voice was coming from under the cape. “Revenge? What could an apparent child have possibly done to the Senior Commissioner?” he asked, smelling corruption. This was getting complicated quickly. KID thought he had been only partly joking when he accused the chibi detective of attracting strong and powerful enemies.

“I embarrassed him and his wife.” Shinichi said nonchalantly, like it was one of the many forgettable cases Shinichi had solved during his time as Conan.

“She was having an affair, and I exposed it. Kataguri’s wife was the key witness in another case a while back - under a different name so I didn’t recognise it when Kataguri’s daughter introduced herself to me - but I had deduced that his wife was involved with the victim romantically.”

Shinichi could practically taste the confusion in KID’s voice as he interjected. “What does that have to do with Kataguri himself wanting revenge? His wife was the one having an affair. Shouldn’t he be mad at her? Why did he direct his anger onto you?”

Why indeed. Crimes of passion were hardly a logical thing. Humans were confusing creatures. Sometimes society deems the guilt lies with the party who would expose scandal and disturb social harmony, rather than the perpetrator who was actually responsible. Sometimes, such perceptions are so habitual it even becomes a cultural construct. It didn’t have to make sense, it just had to make sense enough to burn anger into their hearts long enough to shift the blame onto someone more expendable.

“When a man cheats on his wife, it’s only natural because he ‘implicitly desires sex,’ this is the societal perception that’s so prevalent, it’s even implied as such in Article One Seventy-Seven.” Shinichi explained. “But when a woman cheats on her husband, it’s because the man is an embarrassment.”

“That’s bullshit,” KID replied, pointing out the blatant double standard.

“That’s societal biases,” Shinichi corrected. “It doesn’t have to make sense if it’s what people want to believe. And they believe that when a woman cheats, it’s a failing of the man to keep her satisfied in bed.”

He put down his fingers and brushed his hands down his sides, as if ridding himself of those antiquated ideas after bringing them up. “In any case, the fact that the Senior Commissioner’s wife was having an extramarital affair was a huge scandal. Kataguri blamed me for exposing her because it made him look bad. He said I could’ve left that part out of my deductions, saved them the shame. Now, he was known in the police break room as the Senior Commissioner who couldn’t even please his wife.”

The corners of KID’s lips pulled down in a frown. Men's egos could be such fragile things. “So, Kataguri’s daughter targeted you for him?”

Shinichi nodded, “her name is Nanase. She told me her mom was in trouble and to come to her house right away to help.” 

He worried his lip in his mouth, feeling a bit foolish now in hindsight at how easily he had followed this unknown little girl almost unquestioningly under the presumption that in her young age, she was harmless. “I didn’t know she was in on it. I could tell something was wrong, but of course something would be troubling her if her mom was in danger. I figured I’d just go to her house and at least see what the problem was. I mean, why wouldn't I trust an innocent little girl who said she needed my help?”

He remembered turning around to find Nanase had closed the door behind them. It was a common tactic among criminals. Having someone who appeared to be trustworthy and harmless playing bait. Children, women, the elderly and disabled. Someone who’s very appearance got people to lower their guards down around them. 

KID bit his own lip in an aborted hope. “If she lured you there, isn’t she also a witness? Couldn’t she corroborate your accusations for the case?”

Shinichi snorted. “Of course she is. She didn’t see the assault herself, thank god Kataguri had enough sense for that. But she refused to testify against her father. And she’s a minor, it’s not like we could make her testify. So, no, she didn’t corroborate my story.”

“And the mother?”

“Out of town,” Shinichi dismissed, waving his hand over his ear. “Plus, of course she sides with her husband. Her reputation is already stained enough from that previous case without her blackening her family’s name further if she forced Nanase-san to testify. She thinks she’s suffered enough humiliation at my hand and vouches for her husband.”

It had been a long shot. Of course, members of the same family would want to see the best in their loved ones, blind to the evils they were being accused of, but KID had been hoping there had been something there that would have helped his little Tantei-kun. Some little ray of hope that could have supported his case, even if a little bit.

“Back to the matter of threatening his daughter,” said Shinichi, continuing from where he had gotten slightly sidetracked by KID’s questioning. 

“Well. I'll spare you the sordid details, but Kataguri told me if I didn't listen to him and do as I was told, he'd punish his daughter instead.”

His resolve weakened at the time, mind racing as he tried to figure out a way for both of them to escape unscathed. But Kataguri was her father, and Nanase loved her father. She would always go back home to her father with open arms, even if Conan tried to help her. And he … he promised he wouldn’t lay a hand on her even after Conan left. All he had to do to ensure her future safety was endure a moment of humiliation to satisfy Kataguri’s thirst for revenge.

“I … I didn’t know what to do. If I didn’t listen, someone else would be hurt because of me. And I couldn’t make her leave the house, even if he hurt her. She loved him too much, as fucked up as it is. Even if I darted him, she was never going to leave and he said he was going to eventually hurt her if I didn’t-” Shinichi’s voice broke as words failed him. He wanted, no he needed KID to understand. He needed someone to take his side. That the option to just walk away was never really there, even though the jury had claimed he had every opportunity to leave, but consented to it in the end. When the police officers stopped taking him seriously after he had said to them ‘I told him he could do it.’

“Nanase-san begged me to agree, she was blocking the door for him. And I couldn’t let her take my place, not in a million years. I just look seven, she’s actually eleven. I didn’t know, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t think, it was just happening so quickly. So I just- I let it happen.” The last part was spoken in a whisper, he wasn’t even sure he wanted KID to hear it. Shinichi wiped his eyes against his forearms in frustration. He should have thought of something. He should have been smarter. He wasn’t crying, but his eyes were stinging.

There was a rustle as KID adjusted his position, snaking his hand through the gap in the cape-curtain again until his hand half-rested over Shinichi’s. A steady thumb traced a comforting circle over his knuckle.

“You didn't ‘let’ him do anything Shinichi,” KID reassured. “He was threatening his own daughter. Even if it doesn't feel that way, he was coercing you-”

“You think I don't know that?!” Shinichi interrupted with a vindictive growl, throwing off KID’s hand and fisting his fingers in the bark and moss of the tree as he crushed the biological material in his hands like he could crush Kataguri’s thick neck. He had never felt the urge to murder anyone before, but Kataguri probably came damn close. He had gone over the conversation before, replayed every detail he could recall in his head like a sadistic movie wondering if the court was right. If he had somehow invited this upon himself. Even if he didn’t really have any other choice, even if he ‘consented.’ He didn’t mean it. He didn’t. It wasn’t his fault. That’s stupid, stop being stupid Shinichi.

Shinichi bit back a frustrated sob and surrendered his hold on the bark, hugging his own arms to himself. “By the stupid legal definition I was describing before, ‘rape’ is defined as ‘forced intercourse.’ Forced. When it comes to a rape charge in the courtroom, it is up to the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the afflicted party could not have resisted. Technically, he didn't tie me down. Technically, he didn't break my wrists. Technically, I didn’t try to run. Technically, I even agreed to it, so it isn’t rape. It’s even on record I testified that I had ‘agreed’ to it in the reenactment at the station, so I had the lovely experience of having the defence attorney throwing that testimony back in my face.”

Shinichi let out a bitter laugh as he continued on his reckless spiel. “He didn’t lock the doors, he didnt drug me stupid, he didn't knock me unconscious, so it wasn't even quasi-rape. If such a thing could even be considered legally distinct from ‘real’ rape in the eyes of the law, yet here we are!” He giggled to himself, as if enjoying the sheer ridiculousness of the whole situation if it wasn’t so goddamn traumatizing. 

“I was fully cognisant and capable of defending myself. I didn’t call out for help. So according to the law, it wasn’t rape.”

His mouth tasted of ash and soot with the lingering sweetness of KID’s long forgotten chocolate. He hadn’t felt this powerless since first turning back into a child, stripped of his strength and before he had been given gadgets to compensate for his lack of strength. But that was the law. Rape, according to Article One Seventy Seven, was a simply defined crime that did not include the injustices he faced at the hands of Kataguri. In the eyes of the law, it didn’t even count. 

“Bull. Shit.” Snarled KID. “All of that shouldn’t even matter! And even if it did, and who can defend themselves in that situation if there's a literal hostage? He was threatening his own daughter!”

“That’s what Ran said too, it’s what my whole case was hinging on. But even if we disregarded the previous three technical prerequisites of being a woman, penis in vagina penetration, and non same sex intercourse to meet the legal definition, rape is still defined as actual ‘forced’ penetration. If I couldn't prove beyond reasonable doubt that I could not have resisted the rape, that it was ‘forced’ on me, that I couldn’t fight back, that I had no choice, that I had ‘given’ consent intially, but then explicitly revoked it, then the defence could always argue it wasn’t really rape, but ‘assumed consent.’ The defence just called it ‘bad kink negotiation.’”

KID’s eyes darkened. “Fuck. That. That shouldn’t matter!” he said, outraged. “If that’s ‘bad kink negotiation,’ then I’m the Queen of England. Even if you ‘technically’ let’ him, you were clearly at a physical, social, and emotional disadvantage! That’s got to count for something coercive!”

“Yes, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, technicalities leave gaping loopholes in the system,” said Shinichi, wracking his hands through his hair in abject frustration at his experience with the courts. 

“Hence, the infrequency of sex crime charges in the court. The rape law loopholes leave massive gaps for doubt about anything but the most blatant and obviously violent sexual attacks where the perpetrator physically holds down a girl and fucks her against her will while she’s fully cognisant.”

“In other words, not in the way a lot of real sex crimes actually play out,” KID surmised. 

“No, instead most sex crimes have to fall under a different charge since they can’t be legally defined as ‘rape,’” spat Shinichi, as he then let out a delirious laugh. “And as if it wasn’t bad enough that I ‘let’ him do it, what he did still doesn’t even count.

KID was almost too afraid to ask. “What doesn’t count?”

“‘Penis to vaginal intercourse,’” Shinichi quoted mockingly. “Remember what I said earlier, about how this means that other forms of intercourse aren’t protected under this incredibly narrow definition of the word ‘rape’? Not only did Kataguri make me agree to it by threatening his own daughter, he didn’t even have the courtesy to at least fuck my ass with his own cock.” Shinichi raged. He threw the fistful of bark at the back of the cape where it bounced off harmlessly. “No, instead he just humped the gap between my thighs with his ugly ass cock while he fucked me with a lubed up broom handle. Congratulations ruling judge of the court, for categorising that traumatic and humiliating experience as ‘not technically rape’ just cause Kataguri didn’t bestow me the honour of having his cock actually shoved up my ass.” 

Shinichi hugged himself in misery, recalling as the defence reached their conclusion with a smirk on their lips and Kataguri’s knowing smug look as Ran burst into tears with the final banging of the gavel, putting an end to the rape charges. Yeah they never should have brought the case to court. He already knew how the laws regarding sexual assault were treated in Japan. He only wished he could’ve shared Ran’s optimism for justice for a little longer before it was snuffed out.

“What about the last charge?” KID asked, deflated by the shared hopelessness when learning about Shinichi’s experiences at the trial. “Did you at least manage to get him on anything?”

Shinichi sighed. “As you know, the last charge we were pressing for, was forced sexual indecency.” Grabbing the hem of his shirt, Shinichi pulled the material over his knees as he balled himself up. 

“We knew this one was the charge that was most likely to stick because it’s much broader and historically been used to cover everything that Article One Seventy Seven cannot.”

This had been the last charge. Their ‘Hail Mary’ for them to get Kataguri on any charges at all. It was the charge Eri was staking her badge on and why she even assured Ran they could take the case to court in the first place. It was the one hope Shinichi had for Kataguri to face any consequences at all.

“Forcible sexual indecency, according to Article One Seventy Six, is when a person forces another to commit or endure an indecent act through assault or intimidation.”

“Okay, that seems like a much more reasonable definition than the bull-headed specifics for the legal definition of ‘rape,’” said KID. 

Shinichi nodded. “Yes, and we absolutely could have convicted him on this charge. Except-”

KID groaned. “Tantei-kun, do not go around giving me false hope like that. Do not tell me the Justice System believes you were not forced to endure sexual indecency just because Kataguri did not ‘hold you down to take it,’ I fear I’m going to lose my faith in humanity if you tell me there’s another ‘technicality’ that barred you from this one.”

Shinichi shook his head. “No, they believe I could have been forced through intimidation, my testimony regarding the safety of Nanase was proof enough of that, and intimidation was luckily enough to get the charge to stick. But they simply didn’t want to convict him.”

“I’m sorry?” KID asked, shocked and horrified beyond all belief. “They simply didn’t want to convict him? After all the other charges were dismissed, they wouldn’t even give you this much?”

Shinichi gave a grim smile. “The minimum sentence for forced sexual intercourse is three years. The minimum sentence for forced sexual indecency is a whole six months. Kataguri had already announced he would retire this year.”

“Okay, so what does this have to do with the court simply refusing to convict him?”

Shinichi sighed. “Think about it KID. Police officers get to enjoy certain leniencies with the law. It’s not supposed to be this way, but that’s the way it plays out when they hold a position of power. Given his rank and social reputation, the court was a lot more willing to show him leniency and not even charge the minimum sentence of six months if he was found guilty. The most they were going to do was three.”

“Then lock him up for three!” raged KID. “I still don’t see the problem here, even if I think he deserves a hell of a lot more than three measly months in prison.”

“It’s actually very simple,” said Shinichi. “Kataguri was already set to retire at the end of the year, stating that if he’d be leaving the force in a few short months anyway, then what’s the point of even convicting him? All convicting him will do is dismiss him ahead of schedule and ruin the reputation of an upstanding member of the police force, and the judge and jury wanted to be considerate about his reputation.”

“But he isn’t an upstanding member of the police force,” KID insisted. “He raped you.”

Shinichi shuddered at the straightforward language, grateful that someone else had the nerve to say it like it is and not be so hung up on a bunch of ‘technicalities.’ But KID wasn’t the one to hand the ruling.

KID continued on, voice trembling with his own fury. “They want to be so considerate about his reputation, but what about consideration for his victim?”

Shinichi shook his head. “They thought it wasn’t worth it. He wouldn’t even face any real punishment for any substantial amount of time. All convicting him would do is sully the name of a local hero, put pressure on the police to find his replacement ahead of schedule, and trouble the prisons with accommodating an extra inmate for a mere three months,” Shinichi explained the court’s decision.

“To preserve the dignity and identity of the minor, the public won’t even be privy to the details of Kataguri’s dismissal, so no one would even know why such a decorated hero was suddenly disgraced. All they’d publish is that Kataguri was dismissed from the force without appeal. All convicting Kataguri would result in, is a messy court procedure that would dismiss Kataguri six short months ahead of schedule,” said Shinichi bitterly.

“I was told; ‘he’s retiring soon anyway, why do you want to ruin his reputation when it wouldn’t get you any justice and instead just ruin a nice old man’s remaining twilight years with scandal? He’s old. Just let it go, it isn’t a big deal, it could have been worse,’” he ranted, heedless to KID’s steadily greening face from just beyond the fabric barrier separating the two.

“I would be tarnishing his honour and good name for a selfish ‘justice,’ when he selflessly helped us apprehend a massive bank robbery crime syndicate back in the past. I should be more considerate. He was a hero, and I was just a kid. A smart kid to be sure, but still a kid,” said Shinichi bitterly. 

“‘Think of Kataguri-san, think of what people would say! Don’t you feel sorry if his reputation as a hero was marred in his remaining twilight years just because of some kid that humiliated him?’”

“So the court thought it wasn’t worth it.” KID thundered. “They didn’t think you getting justice was worth it, if that pittance of a sentence could even be described as justice. They showed more sympathy to the perpetrator than to the victim.”

“Exactly,” said Shinichi, equally disgusted by the court’s actions. “So, they offered to cut me a deal. A fine of one million yen to settle.”

KID’s mouth gaped open. “They wanted to pay you off to drop it.”

Shinichi nodded. “It was all I was going to get. Take the money and drop the case, or get the case outright dismissed in the final ruling. The only way Eri was going to keep her badge at this rate, was if I dropped it. Even if we somehow managed to rule in favour of convicting forced indecency, she still lost the other two charges. If she made it out of this trial, it was going to be without a career. But, if I dropped the case and settled, it would be as if the trial never happened, and her record would be spotless again, as is typical of the Japanese court system.”

He gave a dark chuckle, drawing patterns in the folds of the thief’s cape draped around him. “She offered to do it, you know? Stand by me until the last strike of the gavel and push for the third charge conviction. I … appreciated that. But she and Ran already did so much for me, getting me that far into the trial, getting the case in front of the court in the first place, I couldn’t do that to her. I couldn’t thank her by ruining her career.”

Shinichi took a deep steadying breath, prepared to face judgement from the phantom thief. “So I got on that stand, and I told the judge I’d take the money.”

KID was silent for a moment, and Shinichi was afraid he’d lost all respect from the thief, when he finally spoke up again in a hushed whisper. “And are you really okay with that?”

“Of course I’m not!” said Shinichi, hot, unbidden tears fattening up in the corners of his eyes, despite his best efforts. His breathing grew hot and heavy with the heaving of his shrunken chest. His throat constricted achingly making it difficult to speak around. Curse this vulnerable child's body that was unable to regulate his emotions.

“Of course I’m mad, I’m furious I …” Shinichi’s voice trailed off, too fraught with emotion to describe it in words. “Ran cried. She thinks that I gave up on her, that she failed me. She thinks I should have fought till the bitter end even if I had to burn everything to the ground to get even a single day of jail time to stick to the bastard. I’m only sorry to say I disappointed her.”

“Tantei-kun …”

“Did you know that only half of reported sexual offences get investigated?” Shinichi asked, playing the part of a knowledgeable kid with a book full of neat facts. They were all new facts he had picked up from the investigation and trial, and they were far from fun or entertaining.

“Or that of those, only one in five make it to court? That’s because of a lack of evidence in so-called black box crimes. Most cases just get settled outside of court.”

Pitiful fines and half-assed apologies. Not worth prosecuting for a day in jail.

“Of the cases that even make it to court, prosecutors only manage to charge about one third of both rape and forced indecency cases. Of those that get charged, twenty seven percent of rape cases are still withdrawn after financial compensation. Fifty seven percent are withdrawn in cases of forced indecency. The charge rate for rape cases that make it to court that aren’t settled is one in five, and one in four for forced indecency. And that’s in cases not involving people in respected positions like a Senior Commissioner. I was never getting this case going anywhere. I knew it, and I gave Ran and Eri false hope that I’d see this case through, only to spit in their faces in the end when I took the money. Ran blames herself, of course. She thinks I gave up because she didn’t try hard enough. I told her, I gave up because even I know when to give up on a lost cause. I shouldn’t have let her convince me to press charges. It just wasted police time and made everyone think I’m a liar.”

“Do your police friends believe you, at least?” KID asked, horrified at the situation. He hoped Shinichi at least had some people on his side. Even if nothing could be done by the courts, he would hate to think of Shinichi having to face this disgrace on his own. 

“Yeah, they do,” Shinichi confirmed, his face falling. “But they can’t influence the court. They’re in Major Crimes, not Domestic Crimes. Sato, Megure and Takagi can’t quit their jobs, and I won’t ask them to. They do a lot of good in the world, and it would be a shame if the public lost them.”

He picked at the edges of the cape, his fingers itching to feel KID’s fingers again, but he didn’t dare ask.

“As I mentioned, Superintendent General Hakuba was going to retire over it. But I told him his efforts would be better served making sure everyone on the police force under him were clean afterwards instead.” Shinichi explained. “If Hakuba retired, he wouldn’t have the authority to make sure something like this never happens under his watch again. He’s since ‘retired’ two other officers close to Kataguri who had reputations he decided were ‘at risk’ of further damaging the force’s image. So, at least that’s something.”

He used the cape to angrily wipe at the corner of his eyes. Wishing he could have just taken everything back, not taken anything to court, and just pretended until he was okay again. He could have gone to Superintendent General Hakuba in private, asked for an internal investigation instead of a criminal trial, gotten things sorted privately under the watch of the Police Board. Sure, the Police Board wasn’t going to press charges against their own officers, but they hadn’t managed to press charges in Civil Court either. The end result of only getting Senior Commissioner Kataguri quietly retired without disgrace was the same either way. But if things were handled privately, then maybe Ran wouldn’t have found out and involved her mother. Then, he might have not needed to go through the humiliating process of losing credibility trying to explain how everything happened to the investigation team and had so many derisive police officers judging him for it.

“Anyway, Ran won’t look at me since the trial without crying anymore. I thought it’d get better after a while. I’m trying to forget about everything, and the court is forgetting about everything since I took the settlement, treating it like nothing ever happened. So, I thought everyone else would too. But she won’t because she blames herself for putting ‘Conan’ through the trial, retraumatizing me and the trial going nowhere. Looking at ‘Conan’ reminds her of how she failed. So, she cries.”

Shinichi sniffled, wondering if it was too late to ask the Phantom Thief to forget about everything too. While KID had promised to act with selective memory when they next met, Shinichi knew the person behind the monocle would always know. KID might still treat him differently now, even if he didn’t mean to. And Shinichi couldn’t stand the pity. He already pitied himself enough as it is without adding KID’s pity on top of Ran’s.

“If I have to keep looking at her crying, it just makes me think of how much she cried at the trial. And I’m trying to forget everything about that trial as soon as possible.”

It wasn’t fair for him to be angry at Ran for making him tell before he was ready. He ultimately agreed with her decision to tell on his own accord. But seeing her so upset over the predictable outcome of the trial just made him so frustrated he couldn’t bear to see her continued crying.

“She texts ‘me’ every day asking ‘Shinichi, how can I help Conan? Did he tell you about what happened? I just don’t know what to do anymore. Can you tell him I’m so sorry for making him go to court over it? I hurt him.’ Well, there’s nothing you can do Ran. so take a hint and just drop it!” Shinichi yelled into his arms. He didn’t care if he was yelling loud enough to attract passers by near the park to find him. Witnesses to his little breakdown would scare KID off. He’d escape, providing a good excuse for Shinichi to clam up again and avoid letting KID know any more. But until those witnesses arrived, he’d continue to take advantage of KID’s promise to listen to him and vent.

“The people don’t care. The court doesn’t care. The Law doesn’t care!” 

KID’s hand hesitantly snaked back under the edge of the cape, seeking to calm Shinichi down as his frustrations with the whole system continued to boil over. Something needed to give; either Shinichi’s mental state or a physical outlet for his emotions. Shinichi chose the latter. He gripped KID’s hand back as tight as he could with his child-sized - but no less destructive - grip on the Phantom Thief’s poor fingers like KID’s hand was a stress ball. While KID’s hands were large enough to completely envelop his own, he made up for the size disparity by using his nails to dig into the skin and squeezed the thief’s bones against each other until he thought KID’s blood circulation might have cut off. But still, despite wincing in pain, the thief didn’t pull away. He knew Shinichi was hurting, and was just taking out his pain on KID’s hand like a dog biting down on a healing scab. Shinichi needed something to hold onto, something to destroy, and KID was happy to provide both with his current position.

“I don’t want to be angry at Ran, I don’t know why I’m angry at her because it’s not even her fault. She just wanted me to press charges because it should have been the right thing to do,” Shinichi admitted. “I might not have been fully ready to tell yet, but it wasn’t like it was her who traumatised me. Kataguri did that. It wasn’t her who did a piss poor investigation leading up to a lack of evidence at the trial, that was the Domestic Crimes unit. It wasn’t her that’s protecting Kataguri from punishment because of saving face for the sake of ‘social harmony,’ that was the Police Board. It wasn’t her who felt like in the end, it wasn’t even worth indicting Kataguri and offered a settlement bargain instead. That was the Civil Court’s decision. It wasn’t her who accepted the fucking offer to save what little credibility we had left. I did that. I was the one who gave up. So I’m the one accepting the consequences. None of it’s her fault and crying about it won’t fix anything. So why can’t she understand that?”

From his death grip on KID’s hand, more of KID’s arm snaked through the little gap under the cape as he adjusted his grip more firmly over Shinichi’s wrists. Shinichi’s breath caught in his throat as the thief suddenly pulled him from the tree hollow in for a one-armed hug. Shinichi was bodily pulled right into the fabric of the cape, maintaining that slight barrier to keep Shinichi sane separating him from KID’s direct embrace as the thief was determined to offer more comfort than mere hand holding could, like KID was holding him wrapped up in a big white blanket.

“Meitantei, for all of what a smart brain you have, you can be really thick sometimes.”

“What?”

Shinichi asked in disbelief, pulling back from the captured hug like a frazzled cat cautious of the tentative lifeline while hoping all the frustrating fizzing thoughts in his head might start to make sense again.

KID tucked the shrunken detective’s head under his chin, stilling his attempts to escape. Part of KID’s cape was knocked off Shinichi, sliding over his shoulders so that his head peeked through the gap as the thief’s breath blew over Shinichi’s hair. The solid warmth of the thief’s body was all encompassing, surrounding Shinichi’s little cape enveloped-world as he was held tight as if KID were afraid he would fall apart if he let go. This was close, almost alarmingly so. The last time Shinichi had been this close to the thief, he was being flown over the Singaporean skyline. Though, he was being held for an entirely different reason this time. 

“Of course you’re upset, even if you can rationalise your agreement to tell. Ran-neechan shouldn’t have pressured you into testifying if you didn’t want to. Your autonomy in the case matters. But even a phantom can tell, your sense of anger is slightly misplaced. Don’t you think she might be crying not because she ‘doesn’t get it,’ but because she’s sad that you’re still blaming yourself?”

Shinichi gripped his fingers into tight fists, refusing to acknowledge the logic thrust in his face. It did feel wrong to be angry at Ran for feeling pity for him, but it didn’t feel fully right to not be angry at himself either. 

“I … I know it’s not entirely my fault. All this is obviously Kataguri and the stupid legal system loopholes … But I’m the one who gave up. And I just wish she’d stop crying because she might not realise it, but giving up was the right thing to do.”

Shinichi threw away the edges of the cape separating him from facing the Phantom Thief head on in a dramatic flutter of fabric. The cape slid off from his shoulders and for a moment, Shinichi was stunned by the sparkle of deep blue eyes that were trained on him. He had known KID had given up his last hat to Senior Officer Imai and had even peeled off his gloves, but he hadn’t expected the thief to actually take one step further and fully unmask himself while embracing a distraught detective. Not even the monocle was balanced over the bridge of KID’s nose to stand in the way of Shinichi’s unfiltered gaze. 

While in all the time they’ve known each other, Shinichi had deduced some real physical attributes of the Phantom Thief as clues, he had never expected to actually see the man face to face. The Phantom Thief was no older than Shinichi’s original body, his slightly chapped lips betraying the absence of a silk mask layered over his face. No signs of a seam dictated that it was only his lower face that was unmasked either. A dusting of powder and makeup that accentuated his features was the only thing that altered the thief’s appearance at all as the silver moonlight cut across the plane of his high cheekbones and messy hair illuminating the canvas of skin laid bare. But Shinichi couldn’t spend too much time dwelling on the implications of possibly seeing the real face of KID for the first time, because he had a point to make.

“Not giving up would have been a selfish mistake on my part. Even if Eri somehow got Kataguri convicted, the punishment would have been so negligible, the conviction would’ve only served to boost my own ego. He could have appealed the three month sentence, avoided facing any real punishment at all and all I would have accomplished is getting mud on everyone’s face in the court process while getting Eri-san blacklisted. It would have been selfish to drag everyone down with me just for Kataguri to not even face the meagre fine if I refused it at that moment. There is no point crying about it because I had no choice.”

“Is that what you’ve been telling yourself all this time, Meitantei?” KID asked. He wet his dry lips slightly as he brushed his ungloved hand gently across Shinichi’s cheek, which had become flushed with emotion. Shinichi followed the movement cautiously with his eyes. The thief’s hand brushed the hair back from over Shinichi’s eyes to look at the detective more clearly. His other hand pulled Conan’s glasses away from Shinichi’s face, causing the shrunken detective to gulp as he felt even more exposed as they were both bare-faced and their masks stripped away.

“Is that what you want me to say? To agree with the decisions of the courts and Police Board, to tell you that you’re not strong enough, you should have been better, and just get over yourself? I’m sorry to disappoint you, Meitantei, but I can’t do that.”

KID folded Conan’s glasses and hung them from his collar. KID’s earnest gaze was intense, causing goosebumps to crop up from the back of Shinichi’s neck. He found his eyes sliding away from meeting the thief’s in an attempt to hide. 

“... why not?” Shinichi miserably asked, raising his arms to physically shield himself further from the gentle gaze of the thief he couldn’t face. He wished KID would stop looking at him like that. Like he wanted to get through to Shinichi’s core. It was dangerous for KID to get that close. KID getting that close made his heart stop and start irregularly and Shinichi wasn’t ready to confront what that might mean just yet.

“It’s what everyone else says, so just say it. Even if it isn’t right, it’s the way things are. To say otherwise is to reject reality. It’s just plain stupid that Ran’s still crying.”

“Ahh, but since when have I ever been one to be bound to the mundaneness of reality?” KID countered, miming tipping his non-existent top hat. 

“Besides, you actually appreciate that Ran’s still crying, don’t you?” asked KID. 

He gently pushed Shinichi’s raised arms down, imploring him to face KID and stop running away because running away was what was hurting him. Because Shinichi had been running away. He’d started running since the courts made their decision, and he hadn’t stopped. He was running away from facing Ran, from facing his own frustrations, and now from KID. It was now up to the Phantom Thief to guide him back to the people who cared about him.

Shinichi let out a shuddering whine. He didn’t want to admit it, but KID uncovered a truth he’d rather not face into the open. Just like he had with so many heists before.

 Ran crying was like she was giving Shinichi permission to admit that none of this was okay. Her sorrow helped to validate his inner turmoil. With all the adults dismissing the case at the trial, it felt like he had no right to complain about the outcome if he already knew pressing charges was going to be fruitless. But if someone else close to him was also upset about it, it meant he wasn’t going crazy. A silent cry for help, that it was okay that he was still feeling ripped up inside, that justice hadn’t been served, that someone else would still be upset for him if he couldn’t let himself break too.

“Social harmony, willingness to convict, legal technicalities, to hell with all of it if justice can’t be served. If you can’t let yourself cry, Meitantei, it’s okay to let others do it for you. What’s the point of our justice system if a man can just walk away from hurting someone like that with just a fine?”

Shinichi bit back a reluctant smile, letting himself sink into the hug the thief had initiated to be more relaxed. “Isn’t that a bit rich, coming from a career criminal such as yourself?”

“Don’t you dare compare my crimes to a man who seeks to hurt others out of cruelty,” KID retorted, though it was accompanied with a well-meaning chuckle. The irony of an internationally wanted jewel thief advocating for criminal conviction was not lost on him. 

“So what if the Police Board said it would be selfish to convict Kataguri just to sully his reputation if they can’t get a real punishment to stick? It’s okay to want to be selfish. I’d rather you were a little more selfish, than bottling this all up where it’s cutting you up inside. You could stand to be a little more greedy.”

“Of course you’d say that, you’re a greedy thief, but I see your point.” Shinichi sighed. His head fell forward, resting on the chest of the phantom thief. Everything had just been a bit too much lately. It was nice to slow down and just vent to someone who understood him. Who had always taken him seriously. KID’s hand started drifting through his hair on top of his head, and Shinichi leaned into the contact.

“Tell me, Thief. Are we still playing pretend? When do our roles of Phantom Thief and Detective end, and our real lives begin? As my confidant for the night, does knowing about my recent … problem … change your opinion of me as your ‘destined rival?’”

Shinichi opened his eyes and looked up at KID. The night shadows cast over his ghostly white suit always made him seem that much more like a spectre of the night. Untouchable, no matter how much Shinichi chased him as he flew through the night. Yet, here he was, holding Shinichi in his lap, petting Shinichi’s head like some frazzled cat and practically unmasked in front of him. Shinichi had proven himself mortal, unable to bring Kataguri to justice proper that day because of the confines of his abilities. Did KID think of him any differently, now that he knew Shinichi could bleed?

Instead of looking at him with judgement, KID’s eyes sparkled with the warm familiarity that Shinichi had grown to know between their bouts on the rooftops.

“Of course not. You’re still just as much of a pint sized thorn in my side as ever, Chibi Detective. ‘Destiny’ wouldn’t be so cruel to separate our paths as ‘Rivals’ over something so small.”

Shinichi’s eyes fluttered closed, relief washing over him that he hadn’t ruined things between them. “Good. I was … worried you might not want to play anymore.” ‘That you wouldn’t think I was worth playing with anymore’ went unspoken.

KID tugged the rest of his cape out of the boughs of the tree, the branches snapping loudly as the greenery surrendered its prize. Shinichi tried not to squirm as the thief looped the fabric much more snugly over and around his shoulders like a proper blanket. He wasn’t actually a child, but he could stand the extra comfort as KID took the extra effort to style the cape as something of an oversized cloak as he tilted Shinichi’s face up to meet his eyes.

“Our games can extend to whichever roles you like, Meitantei. Conan or Shinichi, Detective or Kudou, KID or … Kuroba. I’ll be here for you as long as you’re willing to play.”

Shinichi blinked, amazed as now, not only had the thief surrendered half his disguise, but also his family name in what seemed to be a display of sincerity.

“Oi, oi, don’t ruin it now, Thief. I’ve got to earn your name, not just have it handed over so easily. I’ve got to catch you fair and square.”

Shinichi was embarrassed to say he sounded almost put out, like KID had spoiled some of the fun of mystery by handing out his name so casually instead of letting Shinichi find out for himself.

“Our little games of pretend have always danced on the dangerous edge with sincerity, Meitantei. Secret identities, gentleman’s favours and letting me off the hook when you really shouldn’t have. I find this time no different. Besides, how do you know I didn’t just give you a fake name?”

Shinichi peered up at the thief, scrutinising the playful edge of KID’s smile and trying to see past the layers of deception and glean some clues from the manic midnight gleam in his eye.

“No,” Shinichi decided, coming to his conclusions after only a moment of deliberation. “You gave me your real name. You’re on a bit of a reckless streak tonight, exasperated by your choice to involve yourself in my problems, and you acted impulsively. If you gave me a fake name, you wouldn’t be so nervous right now. Your poker face might be good, but while petting me your left wrist tendon is tensing. And you’re trying to hide it, but I can feel your pulse is also rising. You’re so used to lying, now you’re worried you gave up too much information-”

KID covered Shinichi’s mouth with his free hand to smother his words, tutting in exasperation. “Okay, okay Mr Mystery Otaku, I get it. You’re cute when you try to read me.”

Shinichi knocked KID’s hands from his face, huffing lightly but refusing to rise to the provocation. “Stop flirting with me, this is serious. You should be more careful when you volunteer information like that to a detective. You’re getting much too comfortable with me if you think another detective won’t just take that information and use it against you. A gentleman’s game only extends insofar as both parties are willing to play by the unspoken rules of fair engagement, but someone outside of that agreement could be listening in. You’re too greedy with your dramatic grand gestures. I can still trust you without needing you to give up your real name.”

KID gave a mock bow as best he could while crouched eye level with Shinichi, ducking his head low. The tips of his bird's nest hair tickled over Shinichi’s nose as he did so, and Shinichi picked up a faint whiff of vanilla scented shampoo. Between the chocolate he had given him earlier and this new revelation, Shinichi wondered if KID had something of a sweet tooth. He filed that information away for later. Perhaps he could use it to deduce ‘Kuroba’s’ identity and uncover his given name as well. 

“Well, if the good Detective will forgive me, if it’s alright with him, this greedy Thief would ask him to indulge in just one more romantic impulse. If I may.”

KID leaned forward, making his intentions known as the hand on the back of Shinichi’s neck solidified its presence and tipped his face up for a better angle to meet KID’s. For a moment, Shinichi couldn’t breathe. He almost shied back, but aborted the movement. He trusted KID. He wouldn’t take advantage of Shinichi’s emotionally vulnerable state, would he? But, he had called it a ‘selfish indulgence.’ Maybe to indulge in something he knew he shouldn’t was the point. Like stealing those precious jewels just to check them underneath the moonlight, KID knew he really shouldn’t. But, he was never one to resist.

Shinichi’s breath caught in his throat, worried this was headed somewhere he wasn’t quite ready for yet, but still eager for it. He had always felt strangely invigorated whenever he was around the thief. The feelings of trust and solidarity, mutual rivalry and camaraderie might have even qualified as liking the thief. Shinichi would never admit it even at gunpoint, but he was even … appreciative … of the thief’s varied gender neutral assets. He had admired on more than one occasion the natural ease at which KID could pull off a short skirt. He liked those talented fingers that simultaneously mystified and cracked open safes while pulling off a cute nail polish when the occasion called for it. And KID’s brain. Shinichi could spend hours picking KID’s brain, if the thief would let him. It was more than just rivalry. Their dynamic of ‘rivals’ had been slipping for a while now. Rivalry described something more akin to what he had with Heiji. What he and KID had was an intoxicating entanglement of adrenaline, playfulness and an incomparable resonance. But he didn’t yet know what liking the thief meant. Letting him go at the end of a heist because he has a soft spot for him to call on as a favour later when he could have easily caught the miscreant was easy. Escalating the matter and enacting on interpersonal intimacy and impulses was entirely foreign and unexplored territory. Things were too confusing, too raw, too uncalculated. Shinichi wasn’t ready to confront those feelings yet.

The thief moved cautiously and slowly, giving Shinichi every moment to indicate to him to back away. He didn’t want to. He started to lean in.

Then, KID bowed his head, and dropped a soft kiss on each of Shinichi’s eyelids, causing them to flutter shut at the contact.

When KID pulled away, Shinichi couldn’t decide if he was elated or disappointed. But what did happen, was that he had gone bright red, practically glowing under the moonlight.

KID bowed again, deep in apology. “Apologies, Meitantei. I just couldn’t help myself.”

“Y-you-”

“Or, are you disappointed?” KID cheekily quipped back with a brazen wink. 

KID shouldn’t have kissed Shinichi when he did, he really shouldn’t have. But he was always bad at doing what was considered ‘proper.’

“Well, if it’s a repeat act you want, I can always change course and go for the good Detective’s lips-”

“You’re so shameless!” Shinichi scolded, hiding his blush behind his arms and throwing up KID’s cape back over himself. Of all the times he could pick to pull this stunt, Shinichi could throttle him.

“Guilty as charged.”

The connections in his brain were firing off with nowhere to go, fizzing around in sparking circles looking for answers he couldn’t discern. His heart beat so hard he could feel each spasm in his chest like he was being electrocuted. KID had kissed him-

“What the hell?! One, there is a time and place for these kinds of things, and right after I unload my emotional burdens on you is not one of them. Two, I only just learnt your family name, isn’t this a bit fast? And three, don’t get a big head, I am not disappointed!”

KID cackled wickedly, far too pleased with himself. “Ahhh, I do believe the good Detective doth protest too much.”

He peeled back his cape from Shinichi’s face as the shrunken detective averted his eyes, looking anywhere but directly at the thief or he’d remember the imprint of his lips pressing against his eyelids when he was trying to stay mad at him.

“And he’s shy! Be still my heart, or I might just die from cuteness overload from the Chibi Detective.”

“Shut up!”

Face boiling, Shinichi had enough and thrust a hand out, grasping KID’s tie and yanking the thief’s head down to crash their lips together. KID made a soft sound of surprise as Shinichi swallowed every doubt in his mind down and put everything he had into conveying his reciprocation. He felt KID tilt his angle so that they slotted together more comfortably. Shinichi was a little peeved that KID moved a lot more confidently than him. Like everything else about the magician, KID moved big and bold to make a spectacle of himself. He made noises, he sighed, he nipped back as his applause for Shinichi’s performance and made Shinichi very aware of just how much he was enjoying their current activities. He almost broke away when he felt KID tentatively lick at the seam of his mouth but KID chased after him, encouraging him to play along and mirror the action. Alas, Shinichi had to come up for air.

“Ass,” Shinichi gasped, breathing heavily and wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. KID had decorated the area in long licks of his tongue that left the area wet and kiss-swollen. At least he hadn’t gone one step further and left Shinichi any incriminating hickeys he’d have to hide from Ran.

Shinichi was pleased that KID didn’t seem unaffected by the kiss either. He too was breathing heavier than usual, loosening his tie and pulling it off completely as well as unbuttoning the first two buttons of his collar to cool down. If he wasn’t careful, Shinichi just might crawl further up his lap and start initiating some payback to really rile the thief up.

In an attempt to move on before his emotional breakdown devolved even more into an unplanned make out session, Shinichi dug his heel into KID’s side, pushing the thief slightly away from him, though KID kept his arms stubbornly wrapped around him like a grumpy teddy bear and didn’t let him go far. 

“But you like it, otherwise you wouldn’t have kissed me back~” KID gleefully teased, tweaking Shinichi by the nose while he glared daggers back at the thief.

“So, if you have no more complaints now that we’ve made our intentions for each other quite clear, how do we go about dealing with our dear friend Kataguri? I don’t take kindly to people hurting Chibi Detectives I hold dear, and I have a few choice ‘accidents’ I could arrange in mind.”

KID raised a secretive finger over his lips, smiling with crafty glee at Shinichi. 

Shinichi rolled his eyes, smoothing out his clothes and setting the cape back over KID’s shoulders where it belonged and clicking the quick-release fastenings back in place. There, now he looked much more recognisable as the Phantom Thief and less like the man beneath the mask who had kissed him and Shinichi could stop thinking about him as any persona other than the Thief Beneath the Moonlight.

“There’s no need. Before you go breaking into the Police Department behind my back and raining vindictive justice on them all, just know I already got Kataguri fired.”

KID batted his innocent eyes up at Shinichi curiously, playing the part of a doe-eyed maiden. Shinichi was embarrassed to admit KID could’ve given Conan a run for his money with that kind of acting.

“Whaaaaatever do you mean? I wasn’t going to do anything.”

Shinichi snorted. “Liar. You were totally going to trash the place.”

“... I might have been planning to look through his record for clues on anything the police would be willing to get him on that I could expose. Even if they weren’t willing to convict him on sexual assault charges, people like him who ‘know’ how to get away with crimes usually have hidden other offences.” KID admitted. “But I thought you said the Police Board were going to let him retire peacefully to maintain the reputation of the police.”

Shinichi didn’t have to know KID was also planning to burn down the Police Board offices while he was at it. It was fine, he’d do it once he made sure no one was in the building and they could pay for the damages using the funds they raised for the anti KID-heist measures. He’d make the next heists extra popular to garner more public financial support. 

“They were,” Shinichi confirmed. “For the sexual assault charges. That doesn’t mean he’s immune to other charges. So, the only way I’d see that bastard behind bars was to get him on something else, unfortunately. I had Takagi look into it for me as a personal favour. Nothing suspicious on his record was worth holding another trial over that he couldn’t settle with another fine. Fortunately, they’re much harsher on stuff like drug possession. So, the next time I was at the precinct, I planted a shit-load of coke on him.”

KID’s mouth fell open as his eyes near bugged out of his head.

“You WHAT?”

“I said, I planted coke on Kata-”

“No, no. I get that,” KID interrupted, still trying to fully grasp Shinichi’s words. “My question really is; how?! Where did you even get the coke from? Are you in contact with some drug lords in your little Black Organisation that I don’t know about?”

“No, don’t be ridiculous. It wasn’t that hard,” said Shinichi, picking at his nails as if he were only describing the weather.

“I just snuck into the evidence locker after Kogoro finally felt bad enough for me to take me out to another case, pinched a 2kg bag and hid some in his uniform, planted the rest in his house and car, and left an anonymous tip. I also had Haibara hack into his drug test results in the investigation for good measure, not that she knew why I wanted to hack into it.”

KID was almost speechless at Shinichi’s confession. “You stole cocaine from the police evidence room?”

He leaned back cautiously from the stormy-faced detective. “You’re a scary devious little lawbreaker~”

Shinichi shrugged. “I wasn’t going to let that bastard walk if I could help it. Court ruling be damned, I wanted to see that bastard behind bars. They might be willing to write off sexual indecency because the minimum sentence would have been negotiated down from six months due to his rank and reputation, but drug possession can typically net you one and a half years for a first time offence and a much higher degree of social stigma. With the amount I planted on him though, he was initially sentenced to seven.”

KID let out a low appreciative whistle. “That’s a lot harder to write off.”

Shinichi nodded. “Yeah, and he still managed to weasel his way back down to three with a heavy fine, but I’ll take it.”

Kaito pouted. “Well, that’s just not fair. You got to pull a great prank on an unforgivable criminal without me. What about our history of exposing criminals together, does that mean nothing to you? Here I was, ready to support you. All you had to do was say the word, and Kaitou KID would’ve planted any amount of cocaine on Kataguri if you only asked. I’m hurt, Meitantei. Genuinely.”

Shinichi snorted, unable to help himself at KID’s antics. “Right. I’ll be sure to keep your name in mind if he appeals for less time. We can plant coke on Kataguri together.”

Kaito gave Shinichi a wolfish wink. “That sounds like my kind of date~”

Rolling his eyes, Shinichi pulled his Conan glasses from KID’s collar to perch them back on his nose, decidedly recasting them both to their respective roles. “You have a funny definition of the word date.”

“It’ll be fun. So, it’ll be a date.”

“Right,” said Shinichi, biting back a smile. However, he couldn’t stop his frustrations from bleeding onto his face. 

“Still, It’s so bullshit. When it comes to sexual assault, suddenly its all ‘he said she said,’ ‘technicalities’ about ‘forced sexual intercourse’ and ‘settlement arrangements.’ But once a gram of illicit substance is found, they lock him up and throw away the key.” 

Shinichi rolled his eyes. “The Police Board has strange priorities when it comes to serving justice.”

“Well, I can say that it’s a good thing Kataguri is no longer walking free. If he was happily retired, I take no responsibility for my actions if I decided to swing by his place and shoot a few extreme paper cuts in him with my cardgun.”

Shinichi looked away, trying and failing to not endorse KID’s vitriol and find the thief’s intentions flattering. “Don’t do that KID. You may be a criminal, but I don’t need you to defend my honour. Don’t give yourself a bad reputation for my sake. The public only supports you because you have a certain appealing image. Unless you exposed Kataguri’s sexual assault, which would be an asshole move to me, by the way, the public won’t know why you’re targeting him. It would seem unprovoked.”

KID looked aghast. “I would never break your confidentiality, Meitantei. I’m your Phantom confidant of the night, and I take my role very seriously.” KID then hesitated, pausing as if deliberating something before continuing. “I want you to rely on me. As your Phantom confidant, I will uphold my word that in this little game of pretend, these memories of confiding in me will vanish with first light if you so wish. We can continue to play our roles of Phantom and Chibi Detective.”

He touched the clasps of his cape, and tapped the frames of Conan’s glasses with his other hand. “But, that being said, I also don’t want to forget … this.”

He brought Shinichi’s knuckles to his lips, hovering over them so Shinichi could deny him if he so chose. When Shinichi didn’t pull away, KID continued.

“So, I feel I should ask again, Shinichi, if you’re sure. Do you still want me to forget all this? Return to our roles before you entrusted me with your soliloquy of your woes. Or, would you like me to just forget about the parts about Kataguri?”

Shinichi worried his lip, looking at the thief’s cautious face. KID was offering him options. Go back to the way things were with no amendments; go back to being rivals, blissfully unaware of the potential change in dynamic brewing between them. Or, acknowledge the relationship change between them, but edit out the sensitive parts about confiding in KID about Kataguri, thus pretending they had reached this change of dynamic without acknowledging Conan’s distress, dividing their intertwined fates with a barrier of pretend. Or, there was also a third option; KID remembers everything, warts and all, and KID remains the one person Shinichi could always trust with anything.

Shinichi gulped, not sure if he was scared or relieved at the prospects of just letting go without any trace that they’d ever had this conversation except in his memories. He’d prefer it if nobody knew anything at all, but it also felt like he’d suffocate if he had to keep it all trapped inside like fluttering moths in his ribcage. 

 “... No. I choose … Don’t … don’t forget.” Shinichi lifted his knuckles so that they met KID’s lips, who brushed a feather-light kiss across them accordingly. 

“If … if you ‘forget,’ if you pretend you never heard anything, I’ll have to shoulder this burden alone again.” Shinichi took a calming breath, squaring his shoulders. “I don’t want that between us. This way, if you know, we face it together.”

He cupped the side of KID’s face as best he could with his shrunken hand. He wished he was full sized again. He wished his short fingers could reach KID’s lips where he could trace over them like KID could. It was just one more mirror that was impossible to break down, and Shinichi didn’t want to erect any more.

“It was … nice … knowing I have more than just Ran in my corner. And to have someone in that corner who didn’t pressure me to report the crime when I didn’t want to. I forgive her for that, of course. But it still … doesn’t feel great.”

Shinichi sighed, resting his forehead against KID’s, who had to crane his head down to meet the shrunken detective accordingly.

“At first, I thought you were just being annoying, childish and nosy, gallavanting to my ‘rescue’ from Officer Imai, pretending to be some ridiculous character out of a fairy tale and letting our games of ‘pretend’ get to your head. But, you really helped. It even felt a little … magical. So … thanks.”

A rush of heat burned Shinichi’s cheeks as he thought about all the ways KID had ‘helped’ tonight. He really should give the thief an overdue lecture on flirting propriety.

KID leaned into Shinichi’s forehead, nuzzling the side of his face with his own cheek. “Of course, anytime, Meitantei. What else is a magician of the night for, but a night of captivating magic? Even if this magic is a little less grandiose than my usual games. My ear is always at your disposal, should you need it.”

Pulling him back onto his lap more securely, KID rested his chin over Shinichi’s shoulder, blanketing Shinichi’s back as he hummed quietly in contentment.

“So, how are you coping, after your ordeal? You said you were getting better?”

Shinichi nodded. “The settlement check covered the first sessions of therapy. I’ve been practicing masking it more. I don’t want anyone else figuring it out like Ran did. Haibara knows something is wrong, but she hasn’t asked me about it directly. Other than that, I’ve been feeling better since Kataguri went to prison. ”

Kaito snorted in agreement. Maybe it made him a bad person for vouching for Shinichi taking justice into his own hands like this and getting Kataguri locked up for fraudulent charges, but the idea of the courts refusing to convict Kataguri for the crimes he did commit left a sour taste in his mouth.

“This is why I much prefer my side of the law,” KID admitted. “Much more grey area and flexibility to punish the wicked than abiding things by the book. Maybe you should join my side officially. It’s fun stealing things, you know.”

Shinichi snorted. “In your dreams, KID. If I wasn’t there working for the task force to try to catch you, who would challenge you at your heists? Hakuba isn’t there all the time.”

“True, true. I suppose I’ll have to deal with you skulking around the more boring critics like the nosy brat you are.”

“Oi, oi. I’ll show you brat.

Shinichi took advantage of his grappled predicament and started attacking KID’s ribs with skittering fingers, causing the normally composed Phantom Thief to squirm and giggle.

“H-hey! Stop that, ha, haha! — This isn’t helping your case about being a brat!” KID gasped. He tried pulling Shinichi off of him, but Shinichi hooked his ankles around KID’s waist and clung on for dear life.

“Nope, not after you kept teasing me, this is payback you rotten, shameless thief!”

KID’s hold on Shinichi dissolved into an embroiled tangle of limbs as Shinichi was determined to pay KID back for every minute of exploited embarrassment and KID was determined to escape the consequences of his actions.

Their poorly hidden flirtatious jibes and grabs at each other were eventually interrupted when Shinichi’s phone began to ring. Shinichi’s Conan phone, that is. 

KID reached into Shinichi’s pocket and pulled out the device, much to Shinichi’s dismay. He then winced when he noticed the time, and showed the screen to Shinichi. 

Shinichi gulped as he noted the caller ID; Ran. Of course it was.

The phone continued to ring, vibrating in KID’s hand.

“Are you going to answer that?” KID asked, tossing the phone over as Shinichi scrambled to catch it. 

The phone rang insistently in Shinichi’s hands, prompting him to answer it. Ran was worried, and now he was out too late. Could he bring himself to speak to her now?

KID took out his monocle and swung it around casually like a yoyo. It was time to play their roles again. He threw the monocle up into the air, and Shinichi watched in amazement as it disappeared between his fingers before reappearing as a flash of silver and glass on his face, all without KID actually moving his hands anywhere near his eyes.

“Mask back on, Meitantei. You’ll have to face her eventually, and you have a role to play. You might even feel better after you do.”

“Yeah,” Shinichi breathed, steadying himself. “I guess I should.”

KID gave a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder as Shinichi gave one more cautious glance at the decline button, letting it ring twice more then swiped to answer the phone before he could change his mind.

“Hello, Ran?”

“Conan-kun!” Ran’s teary choked up voice answered on the other end, causing Shinichi to wince at the raw emotion bleeding through the line. 

“Where have you been? It’s late, you need to get home right now, it’s dangerous for you to be out on your own at night. Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?! What if you got lost? What if you got hurt?”

Ran’s voice broke on the last sentence, voicing her unspoken worries about failing Conan once again.

Shinichi sighed with the casualness of an overly-mothered grade schooler.

“Yeah, yeah I know. I'm sorry for making you worry, Ran-neechan. I’m coming home right now, I’ll be another ten minutes though, I’m still at the park.” His practiced pitched up Conan voice was appropriately apologetic as he played the part of her younger brother.

KID gave him an encouraging thumbs up. ‘What’s your role?’ he mouthed, pointing at Conan’s phone. 

His role?

Detective. Heisei Holmes. Teen genius. Ran’s adopted kid brother. Shinichi. Conan. He had many masks, but they were all a part of him. Just like all the little facets of KID that made up the man behind the monocle.

Shinichi bit his lip, bouncing his knee as ‘Conan’ itched to end the conversation at just promising to get home. But, ‘Shinichi’ had to talk to her about what happened. His life was already too full of excuses avoiding her. He could at least talk to her about this. She deserved closure too. It wasn’t fair to Ran to avoid her forever without ever telling her why. Or leaving her to blame herself. Or letting her think she’s ruined her relationship with Conan forever.

“Ne, Ran-neechan. When I get home, can we … talk? I'm really sorry I've been avoiding you.”

There was no need to elaborate more on what he wanted to talk about. They both knew.

Ran sniffed on the other end of the line as Shinichi assumed she wiped her nose. “Of course, Conan-kun. Whatever you want to talk about, I just want to help you.”

“Yeah, yeah I know you do. Thanks, I don't think I've told you that yet. But thanks for being patient with me. I haven’t been a very good friend recently …”

“Nonsense, I haven’t exactly been a very good friend for Conan-kun either,” Ran reassured. “But we can fix it together.”