Kid Makes His Move
There was still a little time left until the hour named in Kaitou Kid's advance notice, but the visitors had already begun trickling into the exhibition hall one after another.
Kuroba Kaito, still wearing Xia Yu's face, wandered the displays with Sonoko and the others, admiring the jewels while quietly taking the measure of the security arrangements.
How to put it—the defenses were far lighter than Kaito had expected. Inspector Nakamori had officers patrolling the periphery, but since they weren't assigned to the floor itself, nothing stood in his way to speak of.
Could it be that this Miss Ningguang had truly staked everything on those two professionals?
While scouting the layout, Kaito had made a point of tracking the pair's movements, and he'd found that they weren't paying any particular attention to him. So they didn't suspect him—the earlier moment had been nothing but coincidence, surely.
But just as Kuroba Kaito fixed his attention on the Lynette and Lyney siblings, he failed to notice the small boy beside him, who had been drilling a suspicious stare into his back for quite some time now.
Conan had been observing this "Big Sister Xia Yu," oddly out of sorts today, the entire way through the exhibition—and the longer he watched, the more convinced he became that she was Kid in disguise. He just needed a chance to test it.
"Big Sister Xia Yu! Watch out!"
Conan feigned sudden interest in the gems ahead and bolted forward, "stumbling" straight into Xia Yu.
BAM—
Kaito, caught completely off guard by the surprise, collided with the boy, and the two of them tumbled to the floor together.
Sonoko and Ran hurried over and pulled Xia Yu and Conan back to their feet.
"Conan, it's crowded in here—no running off like that. And you just knocked Xia Yu down, so hurry up and apologize," Ran scolded once she'd hauled him upright.
"Okayyy—" Conan drawled out the reply, then shuffled over to "Xia Yu" and bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Big Sister Xia Yu, I didn't mean to knock you over. Are you okay?"
"Xia Yu" hastily assured him she was fine.
A white gleam flashed across Conan's glasses. "Ara ara, that's strange. Big Sister Xia Yu, are you feeling sick today?"
Sonoko rapped him on the head. "Brat, what are you talking about! Xia Yu doesn't look sick at all. Don't go cursing people like that."
That Sonoko!
Conan rubbed the spot where she'd hit him and pressed on. "Because when Genta accidentally bumped into Big Sister Xia Yu that time, she didn't react at all. But this time you got knocked over so easily by little old me—I was just wondering if maybe you were sick, and that's why you didn't have any strength."
At that, Sonoko and Ran both turned to Xia Yu with puzzled faces.
"Huh, the brat's got a point," Sonoko said. "You are acting kind of weird today, Xia Yu."
Ran nodded along beside her.
"Don't tell me you're actually..." Sonoko's voice climbed with excitement.
The moment "Xia Yu" saw Sonoko about to guess her true identity, she pressed a single index finger to her lips, cutting the speculation dead.
"Mm-hmm." Sonoko obediently clapped a hand over her mouth and nodded rapidly.
Conan: ...
What is Sonoko doing?! This is exactly the moment to blow Kid's cover!
Ignoring Kid's little gesture, Conan bellowed, "Kaitou Kid is here! He's disguised as Xia—cough, cough!"
Before Conan could finish naming Kid's disguise, Kaito's hands moved faster than the eye—smoke bomb, straight to the floor. Conan couldn't dodge in time and took a choking lungful, doubling over in a coughing fit, the rest of his sentence strangled in his throat.
Kaito seized the opening, slipping past the security detail along a route he'd memorized, and made for the display of the Radiance of the Star Cluster.
Soon enough, the jewel of the day stood before him. He was reaching to shut down the protective system around it when, before his fingers so much as brushed the glass casing, his wrist was seized!
"Ta-daa. Got you!"
The flat, toneless voice of a woman rang out right beside his ear.
Kaito forced a smile. "Lynette, you've got it wrong. I just saw the smoke bomb and figured Kaitou Kid might show up, so I came over to take a look..."
He'd nursed a faint hope that she hadn't seen through him—but under her unwavering gaze, brimming with quiet contempt, he knew he'd been made. There was no point finishing the sentence.
He dropped another smoke bomb at his feet, and while Lynette was busy coughing on the fumes, he tore his hand free and spun toward the jewel, ready to strip away its protections in seconds.
But the moment Kaito took a step toward it, he threw himself backward—and a streak of sword-light sliced through the space where he'd just been standing.
Cold sweat broke out across his forehead.
If his reflexes hadn't been sharp just now, would that sword have planted itself in his skull?!
Where had this Lynette woman even pulled a sword from? Did she just walk around carrying lethal weapons? How had the security at the entrance failed to catch her smuggling something like that inside?
"Kaitou Kid! Where are you?!"
At the familiar bark of Inspector Nakamori's voice, Kaito glanced once at Lynette standing between him and the jewel, understood the heist was a lost cause today, and began preparing his retreat.
"Inspector Nakamori! I saw Kid disguised as Miss Lynette—he's right next to the jewel about to make his move, hurry!" Kaito cried in Xia Yu's voice at the top of his lungs.
Moments later, Nakamori arrived with a wave of officers and charged toward the jewel's display.
Lynette had no intention of tangling with the police. Seeing that Kid meant to give up, she melted away from her spot without a sound, moving with the uncanny grace of a shadow-thief.
Kaito, meanwhile, had already shifted into the face of some random officer and was making to leave the exhibition hall.
Conan arrived just in time to spot a suspicious figure about to slip out. He was drawing on his belt to launch a soccer ball and stop Kid's escape when a volley of playing cards came streaking out of nowhere at Kid—and froze him in place.
Kid faltered, losing his window to slip away. More cards came whistling after him, and with no other choice, he retreated back into the hall.
Conan and Kid both looked up toward where the cards had come from—Lyney stood there, two more cards still pinched between his fingers, tipping his hat to Kid with a smile.
"Tch..."
Kid was not pleased to find someone even more of a showman than himself.
And seriously—what kind of human being could flick playing cards with that kind of force, bare-handed?!
Kaito had glanced back on his way out. The cards were buried halfway into the wall! If any of those had hit him...
Just as Lyney drew back to send his last two cards flying at Kid, the lights of the exhibition hall suddenly cut to black.
Lyney's hand paused. Through his elemental sight he could see Kid's plan to bolt out the window as plainly as daylight—but after a moment's thought, he chose not to press the pursuit any further.
Miss Ningguang had hired them to protect the jewel, and the jewel was perfectly safe. There was no need to hunt the man to the very end.