On behalf of the master thief (Shinishi Kudo / Kaito Kid)

Only with the greatest effort Kaito-Kid managed to hobble over the roof. Every step hurt him infinitely and a fiery pain pulled every time his left foot touched his thigh. With the last of his strength, he let his glider fall over the edge of the roof. Fortunately, his arms were not injured, otherwise he could have forgotten about the escape.
"You're getting careless, Kaito Kid. It can't be long before I'll get you!" echoed the voice of his greatest enemy Shinichi Kudo, who was finally back to his right size. While he held on to his glider, an icy shiver ran down his spine, because it was only too clear to Kaito Kid that this was not an unfounded threat. Somehow nothing really wanted to happen lately. He sighed in pain when his leg hurt again when he made a turn that he had to make with his glider.He realized that he couldn't fly far when he briefly blackened. So he steered his aircraft closer and closer to the ground and landed with great care in a dark, unlit backyard. The goal was well chosen, because of course he had to put weight on his left leg again and the landing was anything but gentle. Before he collapsed senseless under his glider, he just managed to press the button on a small device and thus send a signal to Jii. He didn't notice how he found him, shipped him home and then his mother put him in bed.

***

The eyes behind Conan Edogawa's child face lit up with sneer.
"I'll have you soon!" he laughed.
Kaito Kid started walking. Always faster and faster. Just get away from this adolescent in a child's body. But the faster he ran, the closer the boy's breath came to him.Fear made the sweat of fear run down his back, while the voice behind him sounded completely calm and as if effortlessly: "You are getting careless, Kaito Kid! It can't be long and I'll catch you!"
Trembling with horror, he heard the voice change more and more from the childish boy's voice to the full sound of an adult. Startled, he looked backwards and saw how the body was stretching more and more and Shinichi Kudo stretched out his arms to him. Although he was still far too far away from him, it made no effort to embrace him with both arms. Almost gentle at first, the embrace grew tighter and tighter. Forced the air out of his lungs so that he had to gasp for breath. He had the feeling that the other wanted to crush him.
"No no!" he groaned and opened his eyes wide. He was amazed to see that it wasn't Shinichi Kudo with him, but his mother.She gently put a wet washcloth on his forehead. Relieved, he closed his eyes and fell into a leaden sleep again.
"He has a high fever!" said Mrs. Kuroba. "We have to call a doctor!"
Jii shook her head decidedly. "We can't! The whole of Japan is talking about the detective almost caught Shinichi Kudo Kaito Kid and that the master thief was badly injured in the left leg. They will ask all doctors to report such a wound to the police. He would be 100% certain be arrested! "
"But what else can we do? Luckily, at least it's vacation time and he doesn't need to go to school and so nobody but us notices anything. I'm already getting rid of visitors!"
Jii reached into her pocket and took out some medication. “I got this from a pharmacy at the other end of town!” He said nothing about the fact that he had broken into there because antibiotics were only available on prescription and he didn't have them."We'd have to get him back with that. Hopefully! But it will definitely take time. The best thing we can do is spread the rumor that Kaito has gone on vacation. Then at least he'll have the peace and quiet he needs!"
He too watched worriedly that the young thief began to throw himself back and forth. Apparently he had wild feverish dreams and scraps of sentences kept coming down his trembling, pale lips. Not much was understood, but the names Conan Edogawa and Shinishi Kudo kept popping up. It was now common knowledge that they were the same person. The story of the criminal syndicate with the alcohol pseudonyms had finally been broadcast over all channels on television. But then Kaito had only admitted to them that he had known this secret long ago, but it would never have occurred to him to blackmail the detective with it. That wasn't his way. Besides, he actually liked him a lot and considered him a great opponent.That's why he didn't want to put him in danger. He had always enjoyed measuring himself against the sharp intellect of the detective, even if it never got so close with a discovery as then. But he just loved the thrill.
His mother sighed. It was precisely this trait that scared her the most, but like his father back then, she never said anything in that direction. She loved her son more than anything and she knew that this thirst for adventure was in his blood. He would be heartbroken if she tried to suppress that urge. Only he himself could make that decision to quit. But he was still young. She also often wondered if her son would one day find a partner who loved him so much that she would give him his freedom. It took a lot of inner strength to always tremble with fear when you knew he was playing his dangerous games with the police or a detective again.Nobody knew that better than she, who was doing it for the second time.
She dissolved the pills that Jii had brought with her in the water and gave them to Kaito. The cool water and her gentle touch seemed to calm him down and he fell back into a calmer sleep. She hoped that would bring him closer to recovery.

***
Dark! It was so dark around him. Infinitely slowly he managed to lift his eyelids. It grew light around him. He quickly realized that he was lying in his room. What had happened that made him feel so utterly tired? The memories came gradually. The theft, Shinichi Kudo, who had seen through his riddle again, from which he could only escape by a hair's breadth. The rusty nail on which he suffered a deep wound in his left lower leg as he escaped through the ventilation shafts. And again the master detective, who was already waiting for him on the roof. The words Shinishi had called after him also came to his mind."It can't be long before I'll catch you!"
He was honest enough with himself that he didn't just dismiss this as an empty threat. That it had hit him so hard made him very thoughtful. Why did he become the Kaito Kid? But only to find his father's murderers. Clear! He also just enjoyed fooling the police. But that wasn't the real reason why he kept putting himself in danger again and again. But if he was honest with himself, he hadn't come a single step closer to his father's murderers in all those years. Maybe it was time to take a different path, but that had to be well thought out.
The door of his room opened and his mother stuck her head in.
"You're awake! Finally! Everything will be fine!" she sighed as she hurried to his bed.
These words hit Kaito deeply. Only now did he realize what fears his mother must have when he went on his raids.But since she had never said anything, he had never thought about it. Matt tried a smile to calm her down.
"How long?" Then it came croaking from his lips.
"Four days!" explained his mother. "You've been lying here for four days now. You have a deep crack in your leg that was infected. But the antibiotics Jii got hold of worked well. Luckily! I was about to call a doctor!"
Kaito nodded slightly. From second to second he felt his spirits awaken more and so he understood immediately that this would have meant the end of Kaito Kid. "I just worry you!" he whispered understandingly.
His mother leaned over him. You could see the relief on her face that he had finally come to and was also mentally full. "You wouldn't be your father's son if it were different!" she smirked as she gently put her right hand on his forehead to check the temperature. "But I can handle it!"Kaito nodded thoughtfully, but said nothing. Before he raised any hopes that he wanted to change anything, he had to really think about it.

***

Four weeks later, the Kaito Kid broke into a mansion late at night. Today he didn't have to worry about the police, because this one time he hadn't sent a warning. Well He didn't want to steal anything either, he had a completely different reason to break into here. There was nobody in the house because he knew that the only occupant was still busy outside. He moved around the house as if it were his own. He went straight to the library, a truly huge room. He turned on the light and walked past the tall, ceiling-loaded shelves loaded with books. It was, he wasn't particularly surprised, just detective novels. Suddenly he stopped. The title of a book caught his eye. He couldn't resist and pulled it off the shelf."Arséne Lupine, Maurice Leblanc's gentleman thief," he read aloud. Of course he had heard of the book before, as he was often compared to this novel figure. But he hadn't read the book yet. Well And since he had nothing better to do, he sat down with the thriller in the nearest chair and began to read. The reading was so interesting that he became totally immersed in the plot and practically forgot about his surroundings. (---- if you don't know the book, you should read it. Especially for "Kaito Kid fans" it's practically a must! Grins)
"Is it at least interesting?" he suddenly heard a voice and winced violently. He quickly pulled himself back into the real world and slowly looked up. With an ironic smile, he registered that the owner of the villa was aiming his strange watch at him.
"Hello Shinichi!" he greeted him kindly. "And yes! The thriller is very interesting. I should have read it long ago!""Oh! And that's why you come here especially? You know that you have handed yourself over to me!"
The Kaito Kid smiled a little arrogantly as always. "Wouldn't it hit your self-esteem hard if you overwhelmed me when I came to you to talk to you in peace?"