When Hakuba and his falcon Watson on his shoulder came to the house of the Kuroba family at noon to pick him up, he was already ready and waiting for him. The detective regretted it a little. He would have loved to have a look around the house, but Kaito didn't give him the opportunity. So they started. Kaito was carrying a bag that caught Hakuba's attention. He looked at it so curiously that his companion had to laugh.
"Why do not you ask?" he grinned. "You would love to know what I have in my pocket!"
Hakuba pressed his lips together first. He didn't like it at all that the other could interpret his behavior so easily. But then curiosity won and he nodded slightly. "You are right, Kuroba. I would like to know what you are taking with you for kudo!"
He laughed, opened the bag and held it out to the detective. "Take a look inside. It's no secret. After all, that's the reason I wanted to see him today. You just can't get rid of your distrust of me, can you?"So I'll have to put up with the fact that you keep spying on me! "
Hakuba preferred not to reply, but grabbed the bag and looked inside. There were books in it. He took one out and read the title. "Arsene Lupine versus Herlock Sholmes" it said. (---- Haha! Every Kaito Kid fan should read that too. You can guess who the master thief is dealing with. For legal reasons, Maurice Leblaunc only had to change the name a little at that time ----) "Why are you taking them with you to kudo?" he wanted to know, slightly annoyed. He just didn't like it when his great role model Sherlock Holmes was made fun of, which was a little the case in this book and he noticed that the other documents were by the same author as well.
Kuroba grinned mischievously from ear to ear. But it was also a huge coincidence (---- or the author's wish. Grin! -----) that he had to grab this book of all things. "Very easily!Because the books belong to him! "He explained." Or rather his father. He had lent it to me and since I had read it out, I wanted to bring it back to him soon. I always bring back what I have borrowed. What did you think?"
The detective winced briefly. If you suspected the other guy to be the Kaito Kid, you could understand that differently. The thefts of the master thief could theoretically also be described as borrowing. After all, he always gave his prey back. But he quickly tore himself away from this thought. He'd made up his mind to only pursue the Kaito Kid during his crimes. But what had been ingrained for so long couldn't be pushed away so easily. He closed the bag again and handed it back to Kaito.
He smiled amused. He could almost read the other's thoughts, which wasn't that difficult either. But then Hakuba surprised him. He wasn't prepared for the question he was now asking."Why did Kudo come to investigate your father's death in the first place?"
"Because I hired him!" he said without thinking and then was relieved to find that luckily he hadn't given himself away. After all, he had actually given him the job, but as the Kaito Kid. "His death has always seemed strange to me!" he continued quickly. "But everyone was convinced it was an accident. I just didn't want to believe it, because my father was a great magician. And the trick that killed him was one of the simplest trick there was. It fit not together!"
Hakuba looked at him slightly injured. "Why didn't you ask me?"
Kaito laughed ironically. "You of all people? You suspect me all the time for no reason that I am the Kaito Kid and then should I confide in you?" He shook his head vigorously. "You would have devoted more energy to hanging something on me than looking for my father's murderer.If you'd believed me at all No! For me, Shinichi Kudo was a better choice. After all, he works in a detective agency and so I was able to officially hire him. We couldn't see beforehand that we would become friends, but I'm happy about it.
His companion pressed his lips together. He had to admit that Kuroba was not wrong. Even now he couldn't say how he would have reacted if he had come to him with something like that. Maybe it was a good thing that everything had turned out that way. The rest of the way they talked about school and other things that actually didn't interest any of them.
So they entered the detective agency together, where, in addition to Shinichi Kudo, Kogoro Mori was also staying. Above all, he eyed Sagura Hakuba with interested eyes.
"So you are Mr. Hakuba!" he finally spoke to him. "And you are applying to my detective agency as a freelancer!"
"Huh?" made the incomprehensible.
Shinichi laughed in amusement."No!" he smiled. "Mr. Hakuba doesn't know anything that I thought of him when we talked about a detective for this position!"
Kogoro Mori looked angrily at his daughter's friend "You could have told me that too!" he grumbled.
He just grinned and turned to Hakuba. "But tell me, would you like to work in our detective agency? Since I've been here, we've been getting more and more jobs. So many that Mr. Mori and I can no longer solve them on our own. We still need a talented investigator who can work independently could!"
Kaito had to bite his grin, because he had finally suggested Shinichi Hakuba for this post and apparently he had seriously thought about it and also persuaded Kogoro Mori to do it.
Hakuba was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected something like that. It had never occurred to him that he could make money solving crimes, but he was starting to like the idea.At last no one would be able to send him away from the scene, but if he were acting on behalf of a client, even Inspector Nakamori would have to tolerate him. So he nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! If you believe me to do that, I would love to do it!"
Shinichi waved his hand with a smile. "I observed you very closely yesterday at noon and I have to say that you convinced me precisely because you could not have known that I had intended you for this position!" Then he clarified the payment with Hakuba and pressed a file for him the hand. "Here!" he smiled. “This is your first case!” Then he pointed to Kogoro Mori. "He'll do the rest with you now. Draw up the contract, apply for your detective license and so on!"
Then he turned to Kaito, who handed him the books he had brought with him. "With thanks back!" he laughed. "It's great that you loaned them to me. They are just great!"
"I can imagine that you liked them!" smiled the."If you are a Kaito Kid fan, you just have to read it. I have something else I wanted to give you. My father's archive also contained a couple of videos about Arsene Lupine. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring them here. What do you mean? We'd better go to my house! This ... "he pointed to Hakuba and Mori, who were working on the employment contract," ... it'll take a while.
Kaito nodded with a grin. He understood the hint of the fence post well. This was not the place to talk about other things. Things that really interested him, like whether he would get his first assignment.

***

In the villa that belonged to Shinichi Kudo's parents, he really gave Kaito the video films first. "Here!" he laughed. "In case Hakuba asks. I hardly think that I was able to dispel his suspicions about you in the long run. The longer our little meal and the conversation that went with it was, the more the suspicion against you will rise again!"Kaito joined in his laughter. "It's already so far. The only difference to before is that he no longer threatens me all the time, he would expose me. But although he says that he wants to unmask the Kaito Kid directly in a case, he watches me closely as Kaito Kuroba ! "
Shinichi grew serious. "Then it is good that he is now getting his orders from the Mori-Kudo detective agency. I can schedule it so that he is always busy with something other important when you are on the road as the Kaito Kid!"
"That's very interesting!" a strong male voice rang out behind them.
Shinichi and Kaito turned around in horror. Who had overheard this conversation that no one except them should have heard? There was a tall, slim, dark-haired man in a suit who looked a little like Shinichi.
"Father!" he groaned. "You? Why are you here?"
Yusaku Kudo laughed in amusement. "What do you think of me, my son? Then I found out from TV and from the newspaper that your life was in danger and since I was not far away, I thought I would come and see you and convince myself personally that it was you are fine and then I hear something like that here! "He turned to the young visitor, who stared at him with eyes dilated in horror. “So you are the son of my old friend Toichi Koruba!” He smiled gently. "I heard recently that Shinichi solved his murder. And I thought you had deceived him so much that he overlooked the secret of the Kaito Kid!"
Shinichi swallowed hard. "Did you know?"
Yusaka nodded with a laugh. "Sure, yes! I said that Toichi was my friend. At that time I had collected everything about the master thief 1412 and then one day I could have proven to everyone who he was. But although he knew that, he saved my life He just had to let me die and his secret would have been safe from me. But his conscience wouldn't allow that. "He looked at Kaito. "Your father was a great man. He left it up to me how I deal with the knowledge I had gained. He was in my hand and did nothing that could have prevented me from revealing his secret.But I couldn't hand him over. In gratitude for saving my life, I destroyed the evidence and kept only the general newspaper clippings about him. I promised that I would no longer take care of him! “He sighed.” Shortly afterwards, I believed he died of an accident. Or just wanted to believe. I had a bit of the suspicion that his early death was related to the fact that he was the Kaito Kid, but I still felt bound by my promise and didn't investigate. When the Kaito Kid reappeared a few years ago, I knew immediately that