Shinichi folded the newspaper thoughtfully. Kaitou Kid was strange. There had been no raid for two months after Aoko Nakamori's death. Two months in which he was swallowed up by the earth until a message reached the police last night. The announcement hadn't been made public, but Shinichi had taken Inspector Megure's kids puzzles. Life was easy when you grew up again.
Pondering, he took out a copy of the message and reread it.

On the day of the greatest misfortune
During the second magical hour
I will
The princess's tears dry.

With best regards
Kaitou Kid

Shinichi's thoughts were interrupted when the doorbell rang. Sighing, he got up. Who wanted something from him so early in the morning? He opened the door and got the shock of his life.

Saguru Hakuba frowned broodingly. Kaitou Kuroba had changed since Aoko Nakamori fell from a skyscraper in one of kids' raids two months ago.
If the blonde half-Japanese was correct with his assumption, then Kuroba had been there as a kid. The deeper shock had to be for the brown-haired man.
Saguru was absent from the raid because he was busy with family matters in London. He had only seen the footage of one of the television crews and it was horrible.
The team had followed Kid with their cameras. First he landed on the roof of the Haido Hotel and disappeared there. But only a few minutes later, when people were about to leave. Had he reappeared in a cloud of smoke. He had flown off with his kite, directly to the roof of one of the skyscrapers opposite.
And then suddenly Aoko appeared in the picture. Falling. Kid had flown to catch her, but he had only just missed her.
On the instructions of the police, and in particular Ginzo Nakamori, the broadcasters were banned from broadcasting these images.Completely correct, as Saguru found. When the blonde entered the classroom the next morning, he immediately noticed Kuroba's silence.
Since then he had left the young magician alone and Kid hadn’t shown up for two months. It had been all the more surprising for him to read a message from him in the morning edition.
Saguru's hunting instinct was immediately awakened and he has been chasing the high school student since he left school. At a proper distance, of course.
"Kaito, what a surprise!", The brown-haired man looked up and Saguru followed the student's gaze. An old man stood in front of the magician and gave him a friendly look.
"Jii, what are you doing here?"
"I have to go to the bank, otherwise I'll go to bed hungry tonight," the old man laughed and Kaitou also managed a small, honest smile.
In his mind, Saguru quickly went through all of the information he had about Kaitou Kuroba. The old man was Konosuke Jii, former assistant and steward of the magician Toichi Kuroba. And also a good friend of the presumably new Kaitou Kid.
"I'll go with you."
"Oh, you don't need that," but the man started moving and didn't protest when Kaitou joined him.
Saguru followed them to the next bank and snuck inside himself. He went to an ATM and pretended to be very busy. Meanwhile, Jii went to the counter to ease his account a little. Kaitou stood aside and waited. Then the glass doors opened and two men all in black with ski masks on their faces entered the bench.
They caught Kaitou's eye immediately and Saguru had noticed them too. The blonde unobtrusively put a hand in his pocket and notified the police with the speed dial button. It wouldn't be long before the first police cars were here.
"Everyone on the ground!" Yelled one of the men, raised a gun and shot into the air. People screamed and threw themselves on the floor.Some children sobbed softly. Kaitou had also lay flat on the floor and carefully let his gaze wander across the bench. Thereby he discovered Saguru, who caught his gaze and nodded to him. So the police were already on their way.
Kaitou turned her head slightly to Jii. Next to the man lay a woman who seemed very frightened.
"So calm down," Jii tried everything to take the woman's fear away.
"Quiet, old man!", One of the men came up to Jii, his weapon at the ready. Kaitou's heartbeat quickened. Hopefully the police were there soon! He clenched his hands nervously. It almost took a load off his mind when he heard the first sirens.
"I just wanted-", Jii tried to defend himself, but the man interrupted him angrily: "I said quiet!"
A shot. Horrified, Kaitou looked at Jii, who stared at him with wide, dead eyes. Blood ran down his face. Kaitou was trembling. He couldn't believe it. Jii!
The excited voices and screams barely got through to Kaitou. He did not notice that the police had meanwhile arrived and arrested the robbers. His gaze fixed on Jii. He approached him slowly and took one of the wrinkled hands in his hand.
"Jii", his voice was low. He felt the pressure behind his eyes and he didn't care. The tears dripped onto his hand and he ignored it.
"Jii!"
A hand was on his shoulder. He didn't look up.
"Come on, Kuroba", he knew the voice from somewhere, but he could not assign it. He was pulled up and taken away. Before leaving the bank, he looked back one more time. Jii.

Heiji Hattori stared bored out of the window of the train. He went to Tokyo with Kazuha to visit Shinichi and Ran again. It was unreal to face the high school student when he wasn't a running meter.
"Heiji! Heiji!"
"Mhm?", The youth looked at Kazuha, who held a newspaper in front of his nose."What is it?", He didn't even try to push the boredom out of his voice.
"Take a look at that," she pointed to the first page. There was a picture on it, a picture of the most arrogant magical thief of all time. Now curious, he looked up and almost tore the newspaper out of her hand.
"'Kaitou Kid is hunting again'?", He flipped quickly to the specified page and read through the riddle.
"At the second magical hour?"
"What does that mean?", Kazuha reread the article, "Can you make any sense of that?"
"No. Maybe Kudo already has a clue."
"Don't forget, Heiji. We're going to Tokyo on vacation. Woe to you getting involved in any case again!"
Heiji squirmed a little uncomfortably. Did Kazuha have to look at him so determinedly? He didn't do it on purpose!
"It's okay," he sighed and stared out the window again. Right now that Kid had reappeared two months later. Menno, there was all the fun!

Worn out, Kaitou let himself slide down the door of his room. He was barely aware of how he had got here. Apparently Hakuba had directed home. His mother had been very worried about him, but he hadn't said a word.
"Kaitou?", She knocked on the door, but he didn't answer. The tears kept streaming down his cheeks. First Aoko and now Jii. In front of his eyes.
"Kaitou!", Why did she say his name? Couldn't she leave him alone?
"Kaitou! There is someone on the phone for you."
Sighing, he rubbed his wet eyes and stood up. He opened the door. His mother looked worried.
"So what's going on?"
"Phone for you."
He walked past her with tired steps and picked up the receiver.
"Kuroba?"
"Did you have a nice day?"
Kaitou caught her breath. He swallowed. He knew that voice.
"What do you want?", He stared excitedly at the device, as if he could see the person he was talking to."I didn't think you'd show up at the bank today."
"Today? You .. that was you!"
"Smart mind. Are you ready to cooperate now? Otherwise another misfortune could happen. It would be a shame to have an orphan."
"Leave my mother alone!"
"Well, well. You are unable to make threats."
"What do you want?", But the only answer was a dial tone. Shivering, Kaitou dropped the phone and rushed to the toilet. He felt sick.
"Kaitou," his mother nervously tried to speak to him. Who was on the phone that her son was so upset? It couldn't just be because of Jii's death.
"Kaitou!", She knocked again on the bathroom door and it finally opened. Her son was standing in front of her and he looked terrible. Had he been any paler, she would have called the ambulance immediately. It seemed like he was about to collapse.
"Kaitou, what's going on?", She pulled him into the kitchen and first placed him there on one of the chairs.
"I'll make you some tea, then you will feel better."
Kaitou honestly doubted it, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything. He would have loved to banish the whole event from his memory, but every time he saw the pictures in front of him, tears came.
He gratefully reached for the cup that suddenly stood in front of him. At least his trembling fingers now had something to cling to. He took a sip and almost immediately felt a little warmer.
"Mom?", His mother looked at him questioningly and he cleared his throat, "Mom? Please take care of yourself in the near future."
Confused, she frowned: "What's the matter with you?"
"Just promise me," he avoided her eyes and took another sip.
"Has it something to do with that kid thing?" She sounded accusatory and Kaitou winced guiltily.
"Really! I knew it was dangerous."
"Mom," he pleaded.Did she have to start now?
"Stop that, Kaitou! Please!"
He would have done it if it had made any difference. If she had asked for his job, but he couldn't. After all this long time he had a lead on his father's murderer and he didn't want to miss it. He also doubted that these ominous men would leave him alone if he suddenly disappeared from the scene. And they knew who he was, they knew his identity.
"I can't," he muttered as he rose quietly and left the kitchen.
"Kaitou!", But he locked himself in his room. He dreaded the thought that he'd announced a raid tomorrow night.