4This was originally a dream (so if anything doesn't make sense blame the pie I ate last night) but it got crazy near the end so I just cut it off when it stopped being comprehensible (I kid you not there was some weird stuff in the dream ending, fire breathing turtles and what-not) and tried my best to make it coherent
I hope you enjoy it even if it is a bit ridiculous, please review.
The detective and the thief: the discovery of a hidden truth
"Tantei-kun... No, Conan... No, Shinichi..." Said the person on the other end of the phone, "I need your help."
Shinichi instantly regretted picking up the phone. It was obvious who was on the other end but regardless -if only to deny reality- he asked anyway, "Er... who are you?"
"Kudo Shinichi, be serious. I really need your help here," the other person sounded desperate and annoyed as they replied.
Shinichi sighed, he'd heard this voice taunting him many times since he'd been turned into a child, it was so similar to his own voice from when he was a teenager that he couldn't stand to hear it from someone that could be considered his opposite. Yes, He knew the owner of the voice well enough that asking had only been a waste of time. It would be even more useless to ask how this person managed to get his cell phone number.
"What could you possibly need my help for, Kid," Shinichi replied as he gritted his teeth in annoyance. That's not to say that he wasn't somewhat worried that the thief may have gotten himself into a bit of trouble, in fact his worry increased nearly tenfold when the white-clad phantom on the other line seemed to be hesitant to tell Shinichi what it was he needed help with.
"You've noticed haven't you..." The thief started, "That I'm looking for a certain gem... right?"
"Yes, I have," the detective confirmed. It was true, he'd realized that anytime Kaitou Kid stole a gem he would hold it up to the moon and often he would wind up saying 'this isn't the gem I'm looking for', or something along those lines. Though he still wasn't sure what the thief was looking for or expecting to happen, and it would be a lie to say he wasn't curious.
Shinichi didn't have much time to think before Kid continued, "The gem I'm looking for is known as Pandora. It's a gem said to shed tears of immortality when the volley comet passes..."
"You're searching for immortality?" Shinichi interrupted. He was surprised, it was one of the last things he would have expected the playful thief to be interested in; if anything he would have suspected that the thief was already immortal before he would up suspecting he was searching for a way to become immortal.
"No, I want to destroy Pandora," The detective's counterpart explained his tone growing more and more annoyed, "there are other people after it, those people killed my father so I want to destroy it before those people can get their hands on it."
Sounds reasonable enough, Shinichi thought as he listened, and when the gentleman thief finally finished he asked, "So what is it you're asking me to do?"
The thief sighed, "As I said, I've already checked almost every gem I can find but it seems like none of them are it, I'm starting to worry that I might never find it on my own..."
Shinichi interrupted again, "I don't see how any of this is my problem."
"I just want you to help me find Pandora, I'm not asking you to steal or fight against the people that are after Pandora with me. In fact after I destroy it I'll even let you turn me in if you want."
Perhaps it was the thief's sincere tone that made Shinichi want to help, maybe it was because he understood the feeling of fighting against an evil organization alone, or maybe it was just because he didn't want someone with such a similar face and voice to be struggling on his own. If you asked Shinichi he wouldn't be able to tell you exactly why it was he wanted to help, only that he did.
The pint-sized detective sighed as he gave in, "I'll do what I can."
If nothing else the thief's excited voice coming through the phone made Shinichi feel as though he was doing the right thing, "Great! I knew I could count on you Tantei-kun! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You won't regret this, I promise! Oh, thank you so much!"
...
One months has passed since then.
This time it was Shinichi that called Kid, "Listen, I've looked everywhere I can think of for information, and everything is leading to the conclusion that the original Kaitou Kid -your father- found Pandora and he either destroyed it or hid it well enough that it'll likely never be found."
Kid listened carefully but he'd already heard this much before, but at that time he asked Shinichi to check again to make sure- and now that appeared to be the case. The thief replied after giving a bit of thought, "but if there's any possibility that it hasn't bee destroyed then I want to find it so I can destroy it myself."
Shinichi had already predicted that he would respond like that, the thief's simpleminded determination made his fairly easy to read, so naturally he was already prepared to respond, "I have found some information that may be of interest."
"Ah-re? Then why didn't you say so in the first place?"
The detective rolled his eyes -of course over the phone the thief had no way of knowing this- he had predicted that response too. As he wished that the thief could be as predictable during heists as he was over the phone Shinichi replied, giving the information rather than answering the question, "On the night that your father died eight years ago in a stage accident... the volley comet passed over Japan..."
"You're not trying to say that Dad didn't actually die and that he became immortal instead are you?" Kid interrupted sounding somewhat annoyed, "Because that definitely didn't happen, if he was alive then he definitely would have come back to see me and Mom!"
Shinichi tried to smile but quickly gave up because he knew the thief couldn't see him over the phone anyway, he sighed and spoke in a sad tone, "Some of the intel I managed to collect about Pandora says that if someone drinks the tears of immortality then they'll 'return to their youth'. If that's true then..."
For a moment neither of them spoke. Kid knew exactly what Shinichi was implying may have happened, even if it was a stretch it didn't seem impossible, and Kid didn't like the sound of it.
"So you're saying he got younger?" The thief asked, thinking it would be better to let the detective explain the rest -it would sound much more rational that way.
"Right, he drank the tears of immortality and as a side effect he became younger. The shock of de-aging must have caused him to create false memories in order to deny reality," Shinichi explained in a very detective-y tone, "And he returned to his wife as a son."
The phone fell out of Kid's hand and to the floor as the usually calm and collected thief put his hands to his ears as though the motion would make things make sense. Just listening to Shinichi's theory had made images flash through his mind -images of things he didn't remember and things he never should have seen, things that would have been impossible for him to have seen.
"I'm sorry..." Shinichi muttered after hearing the sound of Kid's phone clattering on the floor. He was about to hang up and give the thief some time to think things over when he heard the sound of the phone being picked up off the floor and the faint breathing of the thief on the other end.
All of a sudden the thief broke out laughing, it was several minutes before he'd calmed down enough to talk, "You're right... about everything... Dad was... I am..."
The thief continued his mental breakdown for about a minute before Shinichi interrupted, "In that case, I believe I know what happened to Pandora."
This caught Kid's attention.
"The poison that made me shrink was modeled after the tears of immortality that are shed by Pandora, so it's only reasonable to assume that the gem fell into the hands of the organization that poisoned me..." Shinichi trailed off, "The scientist that developed the poison betrayed the organization and is now one of my allies, when I tried asking her about all of this she reached into her pocket and pulled out a large crystal and asked me 'is this the gem you're referring you?'."
Kid's eyes widened, "No way... you have it then?"
"Yeah... unless this isn't actually it..."
The two sat in silence for a while, they both knew that they'd found the real thing, they didn't ever have to steal to get it. In fact Kid had been wasting his time all along, he should have asked for Shinichi's help earlier.
"But what will happen to you..." Kid asked hesitantly.
"The scientist I mentioned before said that I'd probably age normally until I returned to my original age and that I might not age past that..." Shinichi replied.
Kid let out a quiet snicker, "Then I guess I'll be seeing you around, Tantei-kun."