Chapter Text
When Kaito wakes up he has a throbbing headache, and every part of him feels either sore or worryingly numb. Not a good sign.
Even more worryingly, Hakuba is looming over him and rifling through his pockets… Kaito doesn’t know what that means. But he knows it’s not good because he’s supposed to be being Kid right now and having a detective this close is bad enough even before he considers that he has no idea how long he’s been unconscious.
What’s he even looking for anyway? Evidence?
Before he can say anything Hakuba speaks up.
“Ah good, you’re awake.”
“What’s-”
“I don’t really know how much time we have right now, but-” He takes a deep breath, “I’m just going to get right to the point.”
Despite what he just said, he hesitates, seeming to have to work himself up to saying the next bit.
“First things first, You’re really not in any condition to be acting as Kaitou Kid right now; I’ve tried to splint it with what I had on hand but your arm is broken… or at least badly fractured, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a concussion as well…”
Kaito hates to admit it, but Hakuba is probably right. When he tries to move his dominant hand all he feels is shooting pain, and it barely even budges; his other hand isn’t quite as bad, but that’s a pretty low bar and it’s barely passing. He could probably power through the pain and make his hands move if he pushed it, but then he’d be risking nerve damage that could make him have to give up on being a magician.
Yeah, he’s really not in any condition to be Kid right now. But he also doesn’t have a choice; he’s still in the suit, and he’s in front of a detective and-
He can’t quite remember how he got injured actually, probably the concussion that Hakuba seemed to be unfortunately right about.
“I see you’re not really feeling up to banter either… that’s fine. We can have a proper talk once you’re feeling better.”
A talk about what? His identity? It’s all but laid bare right now, and Hakuba had already had suspicions to begin with. This was exactly the kind of damning proof he needed to force Kaito into a corner.
Or was this Hakuba suggesting that Kaito could bribe him into not arresting him?
“So, as we’ll likely need Kaitou Kid for this… I’ll do that, you can just play along and pretend to be me.”
What?
Kaito thinks he may have misheard.
“No, no, you heard me right.”
Kaito blinks.
He’s not sure if he spoke out loud or if he’s just doing that bad a job of masking his emotions right now; either way, just another sign that he’s in no condition to be dealing with whatever is happening right now.
Hakuba sighs, then with slow careful annunciation he repeats, “I’ll play Kaitou Kid for the rest of the evening, you just need to pretend to be me.”
“What’s in it for you?” Kaito manages. He tastes blood in his mouth.
“What?” Hakuba frowns slightly, “... well I suppose we’ll be adding that to the list of things to talk about later.”
Next thing Kaito knows his clothes are being- have been changed. Not quite as instantaneous as the quick changes that Kaito normally does, but definitely beyond the speed of an average person. And Hakuba’s dressed in Kid’s suit now too, so he changed them both at once.
Kaito doesn’t like this. He feels like he’s missing something.
Something feels wrong.
“Don’t worry, I checked for cameras before doing that…. Can you manage my voice if you need to speak? If you can’t I can probably throw my voice but that would require some coordination to be convincing and we haven’t practiced together…”
Kaito hesitates, but it feels like he hasn’t got much of a choice at the moment. So he does the voice just to show that he’s fully capable of at least doing something in his current state, “If it reaches the point I need to speak, won’t my face give it away?”
“Oh, I put a mask on you.”
He can’t feel it. Despite the pain he can’t help but reach up to touch his face- it’s seamless, but that’s certainly powdered latex…
“Since when can you do that…?”
Kaito wasn’t carrying a mask of Hakuba’s face… did Hakuba make it? Even assuming he can, why would he do that? When did he even have time? Did he put it on Kaito before he woke up?
“Let’s just say you’re not the only one who comes from a unique lineage.”
Yes. He is. That’s what ‘unique’ means.
Apparently Kaito must have been making a face because he continues monologuing.
“Right… I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you about this, though I would have preferred different circumstances: but I suppose it makes sense that you wouldn’t want to go along with this if I don’t tell you the bare minimum….” Hakuba takes a deep breath, “I’m a descendant of Arsene Lupin.”
“What??”
“I am a descendant of-”
“I heard what you said.”
“It’s reassuring that you’re starting to feel more talkative…” He’s started looking at the door to the room that they’re in, looks heavy, almost definitely locked. Kaito’s still not entirely sure how they ended up in this situation, “...probably only a minor concussion then.”
He still feels like his mind isn’t anywhere near as sharp as he knows it should be. He keeps catching on details when he knows that there’s probably much more important things to be focusing on.
“Your dad is the superintendent general of-”
“It’s on my mother’s side. Father was told before the wedding- but apparently he’s always thought it was a joke, he’s always been too busy to go to any of the ‘family reunions’ over in Europe…”
Is… is he picking the lock? Seems like he might actually know what he’s doing, but lockpicking is a skill he could have picked up for detective work. Kaito is pretty sure he wouldn’t be surprised if he saw Conan picking a lock, or that other detective from Osaka…. But something about it being straight-laced Hakuba Saguru just makes it feel wrong.
“That’s hard to believe….”
“Ha… I suppose it would be, but if you wish to know the intricacies of my family politics we can discuss that after you’ve been able to get medical attention. All you really need to know is that I’m a candidate to become Lupin the fourth if the third dies or retires…”
Is that how that works? It doesn’t feel like that should be how that works.
Kaito is pretty sure this is all an elaborate scheme to get him more comfortable talking about thief things…. But he supposes even if it is a scheme that Hakuba is currently wearing the Kid suit and picking a lock-
Ah… he’s not picking the lock anymore he already finished.
Still, this whole scenario is much more incriminating for Hakuba than it is for Kaito, and Kaito can’t explain why Hakuba would go that far even if it were a set up. Because this really doesn’t prove anything, but Hakuba had said that they could talk about what he’s getting out of it later, so clearly he must be getting something out of this. Right?
Kaito decides he really needs more information, and that getting that information is worth admitting that he has no idea what’s going on.
“What’s going on anyway?”
“Hm?” Hakuba’s brows furrow, though it’s hard to see with the brim of Kid’s hat in the way.
“How did we end up like this?”
“Oh… well… As the heist neared its end there was a trap that hadn’t been set up by the task force… you and I both ended up in range and….” He hesitates, “Well we both fell into it attempting to protect each other… a miscalculation. If we’d each tried to escape on our own we’d have probably both avoided it; instead I can feel some bruises blooming and you- well you certainly have the worst of it.”
Kaito doesn’t remember anything like that, but he guesses he can blame his likely concussion for that.
At least the situation seems easy to understand, basically the same thing that happened with the Sun Halo heist except with Hakuba instead of Aoko… And his injuries were arguably worse, though at least he wasn’t actively bleeding out so maybe they're not worse- just more actively debilitating...
Still… pretty embarrassing if they really both only ended up getting caught by the trap because they were protecting each other.
“So what do you think the goal is?”
“Hmm…. Well, if they wanted Kid to do something for them then I imagine they'd have made a trap less likely to cause injury…” Hakuba gestures at Kaito very generally, “and if they wanted to catch Kid for any legal reason then I imagine they'd have been better off if they had simply worked with the police… so most likely it was step one of a murder attempt.”
Kaito doesn’t like the sound of that, because it means that maybe the people that killed his dad have finally caught up to him. Or possibly that he’s managed to piss off yet another powerful person as seemed to be quickly becoming a bad habit.
“Or at least, I intend to proceed with the expectation that they want to kill us both…. Just to be careful. If it's a misunderstanding then that will be a pleasant surprise.”
He thinks that sounds fair.
Still, he doesn’t like being forced to rely on Hakuba in these circumstances when he has no idea what he’s capable of outside of the skills he’s shown as a detective.
“And you think you can handle it if they are trying to kill us?”
A chuckle, “I perhaps don’t have quite as much experience in the field as a criminal as you do, but I assure you, despite appearances I’m actually quite good at this sort of thing.”
Kaito feels distinctly not-reassured.
“For once, Kaito, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the show.”