Little Problems, Small Secrets

Prologue – Aoko

Every day there was the same routine – every day was identical to the one before it. I would wake up in the morning, ready myself for the day, and then begin the short walk to school. Usually Kaito would join me, but some days he was late, and others he just didn't show up to school. On the days he did join me, he would tease me mercilessly about this and that, from how my hair looked to the clothes that I wore. Curiously enough, those days were the ones I enjoyed the most.

On those days, we would walk into the classroom together and he would suddenly vanish from my side. I don't know where he goes – nor do I care – but all that matters is that he disappears. When I finally sit down at my desk, he reappears – and that's when he strikes.

Something to remember when you deal with Kaito is that he is, no matter what anyone says, a great magician. He can do any trick you can think of – pretend he's someone else (voice and appearance), juggle anything and everything, make any card appear on demand, and more. His dad taught him a lot, but he learned most of it himself.

Now, most of the time I love his tricks, but when it's at that time in the routine, I despise them above anything else. He, on the other hand, apparently enjoys the embarrassment he causes me. Using his beloved magic, he attempts – and succeeds – to surprise me with any number of pranks (the most memorable would be when he turned my desk into a frog) and, in that moment, takes a quick look to see what colour my underwear is. Of course, he never gets in trouble since it happens so often that the teacher has gotten used to it.

Afterwards, I would chase him around with a mop or broom and try to land a hit on him. I never would win the fight, but that's not because I'm slow or anything – he's just really fast and smart. He can determine how and where I'm going to strike seconds before I actually do.

When I'm tired of that – Kaito has some type of never-ending energy that allows him to stay up and moving for as long as he wants – I resort to insults. I make fun of him; he makes fun of me, and so on and so forth. This part in the daily ritual occurs even if I can't find a weapon, and so do all the other parts afterwards.

Everything settles down when he disappears. I go back to my desk – and don't get in trouble – and the teacher goes back to teaching the lesson. Similar to what I said earlier, I don't care about where he goes. What I wonder about is why he leaves, since he's actually supposed to be in the same class with me for that period.

The same thing happens every day (give or take a few variables), and while I know that I'm taking it all seriously, I have to wonder about Kaito. Does he think that it's all a game, where the outcome just doesn't really matter, as long as he comes out on top?

Chapter 1

It was a normal day (normal as being defined in the Prologue) and all the students at Ekoda High School were getting ready to head off to school. Well, all minus one, who was still lying in bed, fast asleep.

This boy was named Kuroba Kaito. He was a skilled magician and excellent at executing any type of prank. Also, he was the son of Kuroba Chikage and Kuroba Toichi (a professional magician who died eight years before). Oh, Kaito was also the infamous Kaitou Kid.

Ah, that situation of his was pretty sticky. Nine months ago, he had discovered a secret room in his house that stored quite a number of crazy gadgets and the costume of a popular criminal named Kaitou Kid. He had decided to don the outfit and continue the job that had been left for him.

Kaitou Kid was a thief that employed magic tricks to steal his targets. He dressed in a flashy white suit with a billowing cape and top hat. Often he would send notices to the police telling when and where he was going to strike next. However, the most puzzling aspect of him was that he always returned the objects he stole. No exceptions.

Kid had disappeared from the headlines eight years ago. Everyone had been confused by this – some wondered if the police had quietly arrested him while others thought he had just retired from his illegal activities. The one man that knew the most about the criminal brushed off all these ideas, becoming more and more suspicious as the years ticked by that something bad had happened to him.

This smart man was one Nakamori Ginzo, head of the Kaitou Kid police task force. He was the longest serving member of the team, as he had been chasing Kid since his first appearance twenty years ago. Through the years of Kid's absence, he had stayed in his small office at the police station and devoted most of his time to researching the criminal's background. When Kid had come back on the scene, he had noticed something was off the moment he heard him speak. For some strange reason, he knew that it wasn't the same guy that had appeared years before.

As it was, he was right. There were, in fact, two Kaitou Kids – father and son. Kaito's father – Kuroba Toichi – had been the original, and had been killed by a mysterious organization for not assisting them in achieving their goal. This organization was made of murderers and assassins, and pretty much everything they did was illegal. The goal itself was almost sketchier than the group after it.

Their target was a gemstone called "Pandora". This Pandora jewel was actually gem inside another gem, and when held up to the moon during the time Comet Volley passed overhead, it would cry "tears" of immortality. The organization had hired Toichi to find it, but when he found out that they were a giant horde of murderers, he refused to help them and set about finding it himself, meaning to destroy it. Of course, with them being murderers and all, Toichi was dead within two months of his betrayal.

This being said, Kaito found this out eight years later and decided to continue his father's mission to rid the world of Pandora. While the heists in themselves were fun and full of adrenaline, the real price to pay was the lies.

He had to lie to everyone, even his own mother (he was pretty sure she knew he was Kid, but he had to make up some quick fibs when she asked him if he was okay). He lied to his friends – and one in particular hurt the most to lie to. She was his best friend, and while they never kept anything from each other before, this was one secret that he couldn't let her in on. She was, after all, Nakamori Aoko, daughter of the inspector chasing after him.

Every day she would come in to school with an angry look on her face, determined to yell at the next person who supported the criminal. Her father's life was devoted to capturing him – weekends, holidays, birthdays, and vacations alike were ruined when one of the infamous notices dropped by the police station. Aoko had had to grow up without either one of her parents (her mother had died when she was three), and for that, she despised the thief.

However, not everyone was unfortunate enough to suffer through these circumstances. Most of the rest of the world would gather at the place of the thievery and cheer Kid on. This disgusted Aoko, who had inherited some of her father's police genes and wondered why and how everyone could be so supportive of these illegal acts.

What really annoyed her, though, was the fact that the Kaitou Kid could just smile and laugh whenever he saw Nakamori-keibu. Her father was a good man who was putting in blood, sweat and tears to have the other man arrested, and all he did was mock him! The very idea made her want to rip Kid into tiny pieces – after she removed that silly monocle he wore as a flimsy disguise and found out who he was, of course.

So it was on this day when Kaito was sleeping in, almost certainly to be late to school. The minutes ticked by; in fifty minutes school would start... now thirty... twenty minutes to go... ten minutes were all that's left –

The seventeen year old shot up like a rocket. He flew around his house, devouring his breakfast as he dressed and coughing it up as he brushed his teeth. Running out the door, he sprinted down the road and reached the school in record time.

There were two more minutes until school officially started. He casually sidestepped a few of his fellow students who were lingering in the hallways and made his way to Classroom 2B.

The bell rang as he opened the door and grinned. Through the midst of all the uniformed students he could see an unfamiliar face. Either they had a substitute, or there was a new student. It was going to prove to be an interesting day no matter what.