justonetruth | (no subject)

That earns him a flat look.

"Oi oi, I didn't kidnap you!"

Matching flat looks. Not creepy at all.

"Well, somebody did."

It doesn't phase Kaito. As far as he's concerned, this kid is just him 12 years younger. He's used to stuff like this.

"The mansion did." Eerie grin.

"Mansions don't kidnap people. Mitsuhiko-kun thought one did, once, but it was just Akako-neechan."

Another raised eyebrow. He didn't remember running into anyone named Mitsuhiko when he was a kid. Wasn't that one of the glasses brat's friends, anyway...?

"This mansion kidnaps people, and who's Mitsuhiko-kun?"

"Is it magic?" Totally open to accepting the possibility.

"And Mitsuhiko-kun's my friend. He was Niisan's friend first, but he's my friend now, since I'm in the Shonen Tantei!"

Rooting in one of the pockets of his cargo shorts, pulling out a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a communicator badge, and holding the badge up for the older 'Kuroba Kaito' to inspect, while jamming the glasses back in the pocket. "See?"

"Magic?" A shrug from Kaito, "It could be. I really don't know."

The magician leaned forward in inspect the glasses and badge. Oh yeah, those were definitely signs of the Shounen Tantei.

...

He cringed a bit at the thought of being labeled a detective. "So you're a detective?"

"Akako-neechan's a witch, and she uses magic. Ai-chan didn't believe me when I told her, but then Akako-neechan turned her into a turtle."

The badge went back in the pocket.

"Niisan's a detective, I'm not really."

Kaito snorted in amusement. "That sounds like Akako-san alright."

He tilted his head a bit, looking every bit as curious as he was, the gears turning in his head. By now, based on his knowledge of Kudo's situation, he had a good idea on what had happened to this particular version of him.

So he decided to take a chance and ask a question he didn't exactly expect to get an answer from. After all, he would have remained just as secretive as this guy if he had been in the same situation.

"It'd be a little weird for Kaitou Kid to be a detective, anyway!"

"Kaitou KID? What does he have to do with anything?" Innocent curiosity, but ready to run. This person, whoever he was, knew too much.

"Good answer," Kaito said, and he lifted his hands to link them behind his head lazily.

He yawned nonchalantly. "By the way, don't freak out just because I'm here. There are a lot of us in this mansion. It's a nexus between worlds that likes to pull us and people we know into it for some unknown reason." One hand was lowered so he could pinch his own cheek, just to prove he wasn't wearing a mask. "See?"

"How many of us are there?" Expression innocent.

"And there was this one guy who got plastic surgery to look like Shinichi-neechan and ruin his reputation. Is that what you're doing?"

Us, huh? His grin returned. "I haven't been counting, but I know there are at least five. Probably more."

He brushed a hand through his hair and scratched his head lazily, his movements deceptively relaxed and very, very Kaito-like.

"Nope. I'm the real thing. How else would I know about me being Kaitou Kid?" He leaned in a bit closer to the smaller him, his grin turning a bit devious, "Or that Aoko wears blue panties every Tuesday."

"Am I the shortest?" And the expressions and stance and tone all shift slightly, less Edogawa Maurice, more Kuroba Kaito.

A matching grin. "It's rude to flip skirts, Kaito-niichan."

"The shortest I've seen," Kaito said with a nod.

"I bet it's easier to see under skirts at that height," Kaito mused aloud, "Less flipping, more peeking."

"You have to be careful though, 'cause they start catching on to you." Projecting total childish innocence here.

"But if you look like your seven, what can they do? All you have to say is that you wandered underneath there on accident." Sage nod.

"But then Conan or Ai-chan catches you. And that's never a good thing."

Of course, Conan and the blond girl would be the ones to ruin his fun.

"That's because they're spoil sports."

Edited 2010-02-25 08:02 (UTC)

"They are." Keeping his tone light enough, childish enough that their conversation wouldn't seem too strange if anyone came walking up.

"Niisan won't even let me do any magic. He says it draws too much attention."

That comment was followed by a deep frown from Kaito.

"Too much attention? What's wrong with a little kid showing an interest in magic?"

Though... Tantei-kun might have a point, considering it was easy enough for Kaito to recognize this kid as himself.

A shrug. "Something about 'the apparent murder of Kuroba Kaito', and 'they're suspicious enough about Haibara and me already without you throwing roses everywhere'."

Hoooooold on, back up.

The grin was gone, and Kaito was now studying the smaller version of him curiously. "The apparent murder of Kuroba Kaito," he repeated, his tone not a question, but a statement, "What happened?"

"What's it look like?"

"You faked your death?! Even Kudo didn't do that!"