Chapter 49: Phantom Thief and Phantom Thief

As the impeccably attired Karasawa sprinted all the way toward the Haido City Hotel, another short figure was running toward the same destination.

With his CPU operating at high speed, the detective locked his eyes on the brightly lit hotel amidst the nocturnal gloom, and smiled with quiet confidence.

"That's right, it's right here! Matching this direction, the only place from which the Beika Museum can be seen is right here, on the roof of the Haido City Hotel!"

Arriving at the top floor and setting down the fireworks he had prepared, Conan stood on the wind-whipped rooftop, gazing toward the Beika Museum pinned under the searchlights of the helicopters.

Glancing at his watch, he answered Professor Agasa's call. While waiting for the phantom thief to arrive, he listened to the information regarding the Phantom Thief Number 1412.

"There was a young novelist—" That would be your old man, Professor Agasa muttered to himself, ultimately refraining from spilling the beans about Yusaku Kudo's habit of giving people nicknames. "—who became extremely interested in this Number 1412, who had been making the police forces of various countries dance in the palm of his hand. So he reinterpreted and simplified '1412', reading it out as KID."

"KID?"

"That's right. Phantom Thief Number 1412, known as—"

Amidst Professor Agasa's declaration through the earpiece, Conan widened his eyes and spun around. Against a crescent moon, a figure clad in a white cape leaped down from the mid-air.

"—'KID the Phantom Thief'!"

KID looked down at the little boy standing on the edge of the rooftop, a remarkably amused smile playing on his lips.

————

"If a phantom thief is an artist who steals his prey with exquisite technique—"

"—then a detective is at best nothing more than a fault-finding critic trailing along behind him!"

After putting on a voice-changing performance and drawing all the police officers away, surrounded by police helicopters and pursuing officers, KID leisurely delivered his signature line. With one hand, he pulled open his hang glider, while from the sleeve of his other hand dropped a flash-bang.

He clutched the hem of his jacket, preparing to swiftly transform his disguise and blend in with the police to make his escape.

"—I agree."

A crisp voice brushed past his ear. Startled, KID executed a nimble sideways roll, but the flash-bang that was about to hit the ground had already been scooped up and snatched away by a sweeping flash of red. The blinding light failed to arrive as scheduled.

"Who's there!" Inspector Nakamori, who had already raised his arm to shield his eyes, was equally startled upon hearing the extra voice. He lowered his arm and looked over.

A figure appeared to have climbed up along the exterior wall. With a front flip, he vaulted onto the edge of the rooftop, landing right in the spot KID had occupied a moment earlier.

"—What a lively crowd." Undaunted by his disrupted plan, KID tilted his head, watching this sudden variable that had popped up.

The newcomer flicked his arm, and the red flash of fabric that had just swept away the flash-bang was pulled back, wrapping around his neck to become a red scarf. Its two trailing ends fluttered behind him in the wind kicked up by the helicopter, resembling a flickering line of candlelight.

"Where on earth did this freaky weirdo come from?" Inspector Nakamori gritted his teeth and roared into his walkie-talkie. "Didn't I tell you to maintain a perimeter! Why didn't anyone notice someone on the outer wall!"

Because Conan's presence-concealment aura is genuinely overpowered, Karasawa smiled inwardly.

Conan took a step back, looking left and right in utter astonishment.

On one side stood KID, clad in snow-white, his dark hair fluttering beneath his top hat, wearing a monocle, his cape snapping furiously in the gale. On the other side stood the eccentric figure, dressed entirely in pitch-black, his white hair dancing wildly, his eyes obscured by a mask, his scarf billowing in the wind...

Like opposing mirror images.

Judging from the lower half of his exposed face, this newly emerged weirdo, much like KID, was exceedingly young, his smooth cheeks full of youthful collagen. He was holding a card between his fingers; due to the grip, the exact details were obscured, revealing only a crimson border...

A red card?

Conan's nerves twitched. If this were an anime, a beam of light probably would have flashed diagonally across his background.

"A 'Phantom Thief of Hearts'?" He blurted out the title that had instantly rushed to his lips.

Previously, this person had been staring fixedly at KID, as if everyone else in the vicinity did not exist. Hearing this shout, he finally turned his head toward Conan's direction.

Without denying Conan's designation, he smiled with the corners of his lips: "You may call me 'Joker', little detective-san."

Having said that, he turned his head back to stare at KID, completely ignoring the surrounding police officers.

"The 'Phantom Thief of Hearts'... Ah, it's you." KID also smiled. "A fellow making quite a splash lately, my copycat."

Karasawa caught KID's subtext instantly.

KID was implying that his method of issuing advance notice letters was plagiarized, and the Phantom Thieves' logo bore a striking resemblance to the doodles KID liked to leave behind, making him suspect of stylistic plagiarism and academic infringement.

"That sounds terribly harsh, KID-san." Karasawa spread his hands innocently. Persona 5 was just like this; what did it have to do with him? "Since you've heard of my moniker, you must have also heard what kind of things a phantom thief like me steals, right?"

KID smiled knowingly, crossing his arms and conversing with him as if no one else was around: "A righteous thief who preys upon sins and passes judgment on evildoers—that is to say, 'stealing hearts', correct?"

Karasawa snapped his fingers: "Spot on."

"It seems this copycat has set his sights on my true identity this time."

Inspector Nakamori angrily clenched his fists, infuriated to find that the two criminals were completely ignoring the heavily guarded police and had actually started chatting away. With a wave of his hand, he shouted, "What are you all waiting for! Move in and take both of these guys down!"

The Second Investigation Division officers, who had been standing around in a daze watching the show, snapped out of it at this cry, roared their assent, and split into two groups rushing toward the two differently attired phantom thieves on either side.

Unfortunately, the two individuals still did not deign to give them much attention.

"Mind if we have a little contest? 'Artist'. Let's see whether you make a clean getaway first, or I pull off my heist first." Karasawa held up the flash-bang he had filched from KID.

How could a fundamentalist, retro-style phantom thief resist such a prompt? One had only to recall how, in the manga, issuing a public challenge via the news could make KID obediently appear; with a challenge delivered right to his face, there was no reason not to accept.

"It's a deal. It seems the 'critic' isn't completely useless after all." KID also produced another flash-bang. "After all, even the merits of art require an audience to judge them, don't they?"

"Cover your eyes!" shouted Inspector Nakamori, who had plenty of experience dealing with KID. "Don't let him use the glider to escape!"

"Bang!" "Bang!"

Amidst two simultaneous thuds, two bursts of intense light flared. Conan, who had undergone an internal struggle and decided to point his gun at KID first, had even sneakily raised his wristwatch tranquilizer, only to be blinded by the simultaneous flashes from both sides. He could only cover his eyes and stumble backward once more.

When everyone lowered their hands, the ground before them was utterly empty. Neither KID nor the subsequently appearing Joker was anywhere to be seen.

"Where are they!" Inspector Nakamori shouted into his walkie-talkie. "I told you to maintain an aerial perimeter! What exactly were you guarding! Use the radar to track them right now!"

"But, sir..." the helicopter pilot's voice came through weakly. "Aside from our four police helicopters, there are no other flying objects in the sky."

Inspector Nakamori stepped forward a couple of paces and quickly spotted a piece of paper pinned to the ground with a rose, bearing KID's new advance notice letter, explicitly stating that he would go aboard the Queen Elizabeth to take the genuine "Black Star".

"Damn it!" he slammed his walkie-talkie down in impotent rage. "Then search the hotel from top to bottom!"

KID, who had rapidly changed his disguise amidst the blinding glare of the flash-bang, adjusted the brim of his police cap, blended in behind the officers of the Second Investigation Division, and followed them out the rooftop door, slipping quietly into the emergency stairwell.

Kaito Kuroba descended the stairs briskly, secretly wiping the sweat from his forehead.

Good grief, he had genuinely thought his plan had hit a snag and he'd have to fly out with his hang glider to engage in an ace dogfight with the helicopters.

Luckily, that inexplicable "peer" who had popped up later also seemed to be the showboating type. After snatching the first flash-bang, he had just stood there trading banter, and the startled police hadn't managed to pounce immediately, allowing him to execute his escape according to the original plan.

Thinking of that "Joker", Kaito Kuroba let out a "tch".

Though he had some minor grievances about a copycat, the fact that a peer was actually imitating his methods and even retroactively issuing advance notices meant that "KID the Phantom Thief" commanded considerable recognition within the industry!

He couldn't help feeling a tiny, secret thrill of pride.

He wondered how on earth that Joker managed to make people "change their hearts" on schedule; judging by his build and stature, he didn't seem much older than himself either.

No big deal. He was a veteran who had been chased by the police for a long time; adding one more peer trailing behind him was just small potatoes.

Full of confidence, Kaito Kuroba felt the police uniform once more, preparing to strip it off on the next floor, slip into another outfit, and make a dashing, safe exit from the hotel.

Just as he brushed against his chest, his fingers suddenly grazed something rigid tucked inside the breast pocket.

"Hm?" He halted before the fire exit door and pulled the object out of his pocket.

It was a red card, the back bearing a logo of a top hat and a flaming mask—precisely the sort of advance notice letter frequently issued by the "Phantom Thief of Hearts", and the exact one Karasawa had been holding moments ago.

Kaito Kuroba felt a premonition of doom. He flipped the card over.

There were no judgment pronouncements of the sort the Phantom Thief of Hearts usually wrote, merely a string of letters and a symbol.

"Kuroba?"

This was precisely the romaji spelling of his family name.

Kaito Kuroba: "?!"